Canada Global(Web News) A bill has been introduced by Ontario’s housing minister, Paul Calandra, under which the trend of urban and regional boundary expansion will be reversed.
Calandra said that the previous housing minister’s staff was stuck on the expansion issue. The expansion issue was mooted in late 2022 and earlier this year. The province made changes to government plans for Barrie, Belleville, Guelph, Hamilton, Ottawa and Peterborough, as well as regional municipalities such as Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York and Wellington counties.
The government wanted to take land from the Greenbelt and build on it to build 1·5 million houses over the next 10 years. Two legislative watchdogs have found loopholes in the process of acquiring land from the greenbelt and also found that some developers have been favoured. After public outcry, Premier Doug Ford abandoned the idea of taking land from the Greenbelt to build houses. The matter became so heated that the then housing minister and another cabinet minister had to resign. RCMP is also investigating this matter.
Calandra announced last month that the province will no longer expand the land of regions and municipalities for the construction of houses. Calandra said that they would welcome new ideas for building new houses.
