The government removed 7,400 acres of protected land for development. The process was biased, secretive, and is now under RCMP criminal investigation. Public pressure forced a reversal — but the scandal isn't over.
In late 2022, the Ford government removed 7,400 acres from the Greenbelt — the protected band of farmland, forests, and wetlands that rings the Greater Golden Horseshoe — and opened it for housing development. The move was framed as necessary to build more homes. The Auditor General and integrity commissioner found otherwise: the process was "biased and lacked transparency," favoured a handful of developers who had lobbied for the removals, and proceeded without evidence that Greenbelt land was needed to meet housing targets. Municipalities and the public were not meaningfully consulted.
$8.28 billion
Estimated value of the land removed — much of it in the hands of developers who had acquired it knowing it was protected, with direct access to government decision-makers in the months before the decision.
The selection of which lands to remove was "biased and lacked transparency."
Of 15 sites removed from the Greenbelt, 12 had been requested by developers in the months before the decision. Senior political staff drove the process; housing need was not the basis for the choices. The government had received advice that there was enough land already designated for development to meet housing goals — so carving up the Greenbelt was not necessary. It did it anyway.
The integrity commissioner later found that the former housing minister had violated ethics rules in his dealings with developers. The picture that emerged was not of evidence-based policy but of privileged access and a process built to deliver a windfall to a small group of landowners.
Status
Criminal investigation ongoing
No charges laid — provincial land-use decision under federal criminal probe
The RCMP launched a criminal investigation into the Greenbelt land swap. Detectives have been interviewing current and former Progressive Conservative aides as witnesses in connection with the 2022 decision. The premier has said his government will "fully co-operate" and has "nothing to hide." As of early 2025, the investigation was ongoing. No charges have been laid — but the fact that a provincial land-use decision is the subject of a federal criminal probe underscores how seriously the process has been called into question.
"It was a rare, full retreat — and it happened because people showed up, wrote, and refused to accept that protected land was for sale."
Faced with overwhelming public outrage, reporting from journalists, and the findings of the Auditor General and integrity commissioner, the government reversed course. In September 2023 it announced it would restore the 7,400 acres to the Greenbelt and would not remove land in the future.
The reversal proved that bad policy can be pushed back when it becomes politically impossible to ignore. It also left a lasting stain: the RCMP investigation continues, and the same government has since pursued other contentious policies — from Bill 5 to Ontario Place — with the same pattern of favouring well-connected proponents and sidestepping accountability. The Greenbelt story is both a warning and a reminder: public pressure works, but it has to be sustained.
The question is whether we keep using it.
Hold the government to account: demand transparency, no favours for developers, and protection for the Greenbelt and other shared resources