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Ontario has no plans to allow homes to be built on flood plains, Premier Doug Ford said Friday after the federal environment minister warned Ottawa that it would not provide disaster relief where development is greenlit to those area prone to flooding.
Ford says it’s the responsibility of any builder to make sure they protect against development in floods.
“I encourage the federal minister to do his research,” Ford said at an unrelated news conference. “Maybe I’ll call him and let him know what’s going on.”
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Guilbeault said some of the land on which housing or commercial development is proposed in Ontario is on the plains, and that flooding is the highest cost of climate change in Canada.
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Doug Ford has denied claims his government tipped off developers on Greenbelt changes
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Doug Ford has denied claims his government tipped off developers on Greenbelt changes
“I’m very concerned about what I’m seeing in Ontario,” Guilbeault said this week.
“The idea that the federal government is going to continue to pay people where their provincial government has knowingly allowed them to go and build housing in a flood-prone area makes no sense.”
Guilbeault’s comments come after the Ontario government announced plans last month to open the protected Greenbelt to development.
The Progressive Conservative government has proposed removing land from 15 different Greenbelt areas so that 50,000 homes can be built, while adding acres elsewhere.
A spokesperson for Municipalities and Housing Minister Steve Clark said Ontario has not received financial assistance for a flood in more than 15 years and rarely gets funding under the federal government’s Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements .
“Practicing natural hazard mitigation is a standard part of any development and Ontario’s preventative approach to directing development away from floodplains and other hazardous areas is highly effective,” wrote Victoria Podbielski in a statement.
Ontario created the Greenbelt in 2005 to protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area from development.
Ford had previously promised not to develop the protected land, but his government now says the plan to open up the Greenbelt will help it aim to build 1.5 million homes over 10 years.
Both Ford and his housing minister said the provincial government did not tip off developers before announcing the Greenbelt changes after media reports suggested some prominent developers who were Progressive Conservative donors is benefiting from the move.
Ontario’s integrity commissioner and the province’s auditor general have been asked to investigate the government’s Greenbelt plan.
– On files from Bob Weber in Edmonton
© 2022 The Canadian Press
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