Roundup: Ford’s Greenbelt corruption

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The long-awaited Auditor General’s report into the Greenbelt scandal was released yesterday, and it outlined some utterly bald-faced corruption as Ford’s sudden desire to develop the Greenbelt saw the chief-of-staff for the housing minister meeting with developers who had just bought these un-developable tracts of land and persuaded him to make those tracts developable, to the tune of an $8.3 billion benefit to them. That’s billion with a b. The process was flawed and contravened pretty much every rule. (The ten take-aways are here). But this all having been said, the Auditor General seemed to also credulously believe that Ford and the minister had no idea that this was going on—which…is hard to believe, considering how many of these developers were at events related to Ford’s daughter’s wedding. And while I can see Ford not knowing the details, because he’s a retail politician and doesn’t care about details, he’s nevertheless responsible for this as premier, and that responsibility absolutely extends to chiefs of staff when they “go rogue.” The report makes fifteen recommendations, which Ford says they’ll follow—except the one about stopping the process of developing the Greenbelt, because apparently his mind is made up.

But in spite of the outright corruption that happened, don’t expect any particular consequences—at least not in the near future. While the OPP’s anti-racket division is looking into this, the “rogue” chief of staff is keeping his job, and so is the minister, because we no longer care about ministerial responsibility when you have corruption to the tune of $8.3 billion. Ford says the buck stops with him, but he spent the afternoon rationalizing and insisting that this is necessary for housing (it’s not), and then blamed the federal government for high immigration numbers (which Ontario has been crying out for), never mind that Ford and company have been ignoring the recommendations of the very task force that they set up to look at the housing situation. And Ford will skate, because he’s not only Teflon-coated, but possesses the Baby Spice Effect™, except instead of her cute smile, he just says “aw, shucks, folks,” and everyone’s brain melts and he gets away with murder. (Well, negligent homicide as the pandemic showed).

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1689294359441604608

https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt/status/1689323838343979031

In pundit reaction, David Moscrop demands resignations, firings and further investigations for this blatant corruption. Martin Regg Cohn points to the bitter irony of Ford riding into office alleging corruption everywhere only to be engaging in it much more blatantly here.

Ukraine Dispatch:

There was a Russian missile attack against Zaporizhzhia that hit a residential area, killing at least two. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that they have reached an agreement to get more Patriot systems from Germany.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1689329656481103872

Good reads:

  • Multiple candidates approached to lead a foreign interference inquiry have declined. Gosh, who would have thought after what happened to David Johnston?
  • Mélanie Joly levied new sanctions against officials in Belarus.
  • Sean Fraser says there’s still plenty of money in the National Housing Strategy, but they need to get better at spending it faster.
  • The federal government is hoping to sell the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline to a group of Indigenous buyers through a special mechanism.
  • Global Affairs’ Rapid Response Mechanism reported a disinformation campaign against Michael Chong on WeChat that likely came from China.
  • Census collectors faced threats and assault—including sexual assault—during the 2021 census collection.
  • An analysis of judicial appointment shows that of the one fifth who donated to political parties, more donated to Liberals than other. But…it’s still a small number.
  • A Quebec court will be hearing the case trying to invalidate the appointment of Mary May Simon for not speaking French. (Good luck with that, it’s a losing case).
  • Our frigate HMCS Winnipeg is suffering from a broken propeller and corrosion in large part due to its age, while the replacement Surface Combatants are unbuilt.
  • Alberta’s moratorium on new renewable energy projects risks putting workers out of a job for a season, many of whom retrained after oil sector layoffs.
  • Kathryn May tries to untangle the expectations around Terry Beech as the new minister of “Citizens’ Services,” and the outsized challenge he faces.
  • Andrew Coyne imagines what the outtakes of the latest Poilievre ad campaign were like (and the fact that this incensed Canada Proud says something).

Odds and ends:

Stephanie Carvin was on the Big Story podcast to talk about her latest report on growing extremism in Canada.

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