Read about the Ontario election 2025 results over here.

With the Ontario election less than a week away, all four major parties have released platforms, offering a glimpse at their plans for the province. 

In the wake of Ontario’s Greenbelt scandal, which has put a spotlight on the need to protect farmland and green space, and in the midst of a provincial push towards electrification, all of the parties are considering the environment in the context of broad socio-economic issues, such as jobs and housing. 

But there’s a lot missing from these plans, too: few are talking about how their party would support workers to transition away from jobs tied to fossil fuels, and there is a lack of focused policies to address air, land and water pollution — a growing health crisis in various Ontario communities. 

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Before the 2025 Ontario election platforms were made public, The Narwhal surveyed each party on eight pertinent issues. The Liberals, Greens and NDP responded — the Progressive Conservatives did not.

Of the few proposals that could help address the impacts of climate change, details are often vague or the purpose appears to be reversing something the incumbent Progressive Conservatives did (a political shot, in other words). Like the Liberals taking words out of federal Conservative mouths and suggesting they’ll “axe Doug Ford’s carbon tax” — by which, we confirmed, they do mean the federal consumer carbon tax that’s in place because the Ford government didn’t come up with its own adequate version.

Also unclear is how each party would fund any of these proposals. The Liberals say they’ll find billions of dollars in “efficiencies.” Both the NDP and Greens promise new tax measures, largely affecting high-income earners and high-end property owners, and savings from cancelling Ford’s promises to build Highway 413 and the controversial lakefront Toronto spa, Ontario Place. The Progressive Conservatives have not released details of how they would fund any of their promises if re-elected.

Based on their responses, plans and what we know about each party’s records, here’s a look at how the major Ontario parties would address eight big questions about the environment and climate change.

You can read the plans here: Progressive Conservatives. Liberals. NDP. Greens.

Ontario election platforms: table of contents

1. Flooding and extreme weather
2. Housing and the environment
3. Jobs, economy and the environment
4. Critical minerals, mining and Indigenous Rights
5. Meeting rising electricity demand
6. Plans for natural gas
7. Communication and transparency
8. Traffic, transit and transportation

1. We’ve seen record floods, heat and storms over the past few years. What’s your plan to help communities across Ontario adapt to this extreme weather?

Progressive Conservatives: Over its tenure, the Ford government has invested little in adaptation efforts and has made no new promises on this front. In 2020, the government commissioned a two-year study — the first of its kind by any province — of how the climate crisis was impacting every sector and community. The government did not widely share or discuss the report, even though it called for urgent action. Internal documents obtained by The Narwhal show the government asked researchers to downplay findings on how severely climate change will impact food, buildings and people.

In the Progressive Conservatives’ Ontario election platform, released Monday, the party promises to invest $530 million to buy six new waterbombers over the next 10 years to enhance the province’s firefighting abilities.

Liberals: The Ontario Liberals promise to reverse the Ford government’s funding cuts to conservation authorities, so the agencies are better able to mitigate and adapt to flooding. They also promise to increase and expand Ontario’s Disaster Recovery Assistance program, which provides financial help for emergency expenses and the costs to repair or replace essential property after a natural disaster that is not covered by insurance. The program was most recently activated by the Ford government last summer after record-breaking floods, with claims capped at $250,000, processed over several months. The Liberals also promise to speed up this process, recognizing that Ontario is “vulnerable to worsening climate disasters.”

NDP: If elected, the NDP told The Narwhal they would deliver a climate adaptation plan, something the Ford government did not release in all its years in office. (Although this is not listed officially in the NDP’s Ontario election platform.) In their response to The Narwhal, the NDP suggested their adaptation efforts would focus on infrastructure, which is increasingly strained by the impacts of climate change and getting costlier to repair. They promised to take on the costs of these repairs and not download them to municipalities, as the Ford government has done.

Greens:  In their response, the Greens promise to protect the wetlands that act as a critical buffer to guard homes from flooding and other extreme weather events. Notably, they’d adopt a province-wide policy to increase protections for wetlands and reverse the Ford’s government’s changes that have weakened protections and the power of conservation authorities. They vow to cancel Highway 413 and prohibit any 400-series highways from being built in the Greenbelt, a critical carbon sink for the region that contains green space, farmlands and wetlands.

They’re also proposing zero-interest loans to help homeowners flood-proof their basements, and a predictable multi-year loan to support municipalities in shoring up their roads, bridges and buildings to be ready for the next torrential downpour.

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2: We all recognize the need to build more houses in Ontario. How will you see more houses built, while still protecting the farmland and green spaces that are critical to the people and environment of this province? 

Progressive Conservatives: After the Greenbelt scandal — along with the Ford government’s controversial and now reversed attempts at forcefully expanding urban boundaries into protected farmland and green space — it’s unclear how a re-elected Progressive Conservative government will simultaneously prioritize environmental protections and housing availability. Their latest housing policy, released in April 2024, focuses on building on already developable land, and their platform no longer mentions their long-repeated promise of building 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Liberals: In their response, the Liberals say they’ll cut the taxes associated with building homes to make them more affordable, and instead introduce a fund to help municipalities cover infrastructure costs, encouraging sustainable and affordable development. The fund will incentivize smart, sustainable growth by prioritizing purpose-built rentals, medium-density housing, higher-density housing along transit corridors and arterial roads and innovative solutions like prefabricated homes. They pledge to modernize building codes but don’t mention whether that includes green standards needed to ensure buildings are net-zero. 

The Liberals also promise to focus on preserving sensitive ecosystems and Ontario’s rich biodiversity. This includes protecting 30 per cent of Ontario’s land and water by safeguarding the Greenbelt, expanding existing provincial parks (they specifically note Polar Bear Provincial Park on James Bay and Algonquin Park near Huntsville, Ont.), establishing new urban parks, supporting municipal tree planting and horticulture programs and preserving wetlands.

NDP: The NDP promise to increase density in transit corridors, focusing on building affordable medium-density housing options like semi-detached homes, townhomes, four-storey complexes and mid-rises. To do so, the party will create a new public agency to provide grants, low-cost financing, public land and other supports to enable construction of 300,000 affordable homes in 10 years in “vibrant, inclusive, pedestrian- and transit-friendly complete communities.” And they’ll support homeowners in installing low-cost electric-vehicle infrastructure.

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Greens: The Greens propose to freeze urban boundaries and reverse the expansions the Ford government implemented, saying there’s enough space already to create new homes and neighbourhoods. Their plan prioritizes housing where roads and sewers already exist, rather than encouraging sprawl. They would place a minimum threshold for housing density around transit stations and along transit corridors as part of transit funding agreements, including affordable housing requirements. And they’d reinstate a fund for municipalities to safely build on brownfield sites, and remove barriers for building on abandoned commercial properties.

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3. Does your party believe it’s possible to protect the environment and advance economic growth at the same time? If so, what safeguards will you have in place to ensure that balance is maintained?

Progressive Conservatives: Though the Progressive Conservatives didn’t answer our survey, they’ve sometimes pitted the environment and the economy against each other. Ford in particular hinted at it in a debate on Feb. 17: “You believe in bike lanes and riding bikes and planting trees, I get it,” he said to the other party leaders. “But the problem is, you won’t be able to afford the trees because the economy will go down the tubes with all three of you.”

At times, Ford has also expressed disdain for environmental protection. In 2023, he called Ontario’s Greenbelt a “scam.” Last year, he dismissed environmental concerns about his government’s Highway 413 project, saying, “There’s hundreds of thousands of people stuck in their cars, backed up from here to Timbuktu, and you’re worried about a grasshopper jumping across a highway.” He’s also railed against federal protections for species at risk, telling a construction industry audience earlier this year that the highway is being held up “because a woodpecker has one tree. Last time I checked, a woodpecker can fly from one tree to another.” (In fact, the project has faced delays over wide-ranging environmental concerns, including its impacts on several species.)

Liberals: The Liberals say they will position Ontario as a leader in clean industry and resilient supply chains by driving investment into clean manufacturing, clean energy generation, resource-efficient industries and energy security. They promise to protect prime farmland and champion a sustainable agri-food sector by giving farmers the tools to deal with inflation, supply chain disruption, climate change and geopolitical instability. The Liberals’ Ontario election platform also pledges to “axe Doug Ford’s carbon tax,” which you (and we, at first) might have thought means the industrial carbon tax, as that’s the only one imposed by the Progressive Conservatives. The Liberals clarified with The Narwhal it refers to the consumer carbon tax the federal government applies to Ontarians (yes, the one the Ford government took the feds to court over imposing). The Liberals are calling this Doug Ford’s carbon tax because it’s imposed due to his lack of adequate policy in its place, and they plan to release a “Made in Ontario environmental action plan” instead.

NDP: The NDP told The Narwhal their approach is “less about ‘balancing’ some imagined trade-off between the environment and the economy, and more about ensuring that economic decisions don’t ignore the very real environmental costs and benefits.” No specifics were offered to show how the party would do this. The only notable thing in their platform in this regard is a promise to establish Ontario’s first Youth Climate Corps to help young people learn skills through green jobs.

Greens: In their response, the Greens said the climate crisis is a threat, but also an opportunity to create new, environmentally friendly jobs. The party’s plan includes tax credits for industries and businesses investing in decarbonizing, a fund to support startups working on lower-emissions technologies and a program that would allow heavy-polluting industries to partner with local clean technology companies on ways to lower their emissions.

It also includes plans to retrofit 40 per cent of Ontario’s existing jobs and workplaces by 2035, and 100 per cent by 2045, which the Greens said would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. To ensure people are trained to fill those positions, the Greens would give 60,000 people seeking to work in the green economy a year of free college tuition, and a year of apprenticeship after they graduate. The party also says it would give colleges more funding so they can run programs that would be needed to train those workers.

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4. How will you balance the drive for critical minerals with the need to protect the environment and properly consult First Nations on projects that affect them?

Progressive Conservatives: There’s no question the Progressive Conservatives have been big on the drive for critical minerals used to build lower-emissions technology like electric vehicles. On the campaign trail in 2025 — and the 2022 and 2018 elections before that — Ford has put an emphasis on his desire to enable mining in the Ring of Fire region in the Far North, though he hasn’t always been completely honest about the details. Beyond that, the Tories have also been trying to facilitate a rush of new mining across northern Ontario. But have the Progressive Conservatives found a balance between mining, Indigenous Rights and environmental protection? Many First Nations say no — and although some nations have been on board with Ford’s efforts, others have raised concerns about the pace and environmental consequences of the push for minerals.

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The Progressive Conservatives’ 2025 Ontario election platform includes a plan to designate areas with multiple critical mineral deposits, like the Ring of Fire, as “regions of strategic importance.” That designation allows the province to accelerate project permitting through various means, including granting qualified proponents “automatic approval to proceed with early works once they’ve met duty to consult obligations,” with the relevant provincial ministries, agencies and authorities continuing to oversee them. The Progressive Conservatives are also increasing the amount of funding put aside for Indigenous consultation, as well as participation in projects.

Following the debate on northern issues held on Feb. 14, Grand Chief of Mushkegowuk Council Leo Friday sent a letter to all party leaders noting that First Nations communities were not mentioned once in the discussion around critical minerals. “We recognize the urgency of Canada’s response to U.S. tariffs, including critical minerals and, particularly, the Ring of Fire. However, First Nations must not be excluded from this process,” Friday wrote. “Ontario cannot achieve its goals without working directly with the Mushkegowuk Nations.”

Liberals: The Liberals say they’ll take a responsible approach to critical mineral development — one that respects Indigenous Rights, protects land and water and ensures Ontario benefits from a clean economy. While their platform makes no mention of Indigenous Rights and reconciliation or critical mining, in their response to The Narwhal’s questions, they say they plan to expand and build high-potential mining projects by providing infrastructure financing guarantees in co-operation with local municipalities and Indigenous communities. If elected, they would partner with industry, skilled-trades and Indigenous nations to expand critical minerals processing capacity to create an end-to-end supply chain. 

They also say they’d fast-track permitting for mining projects that have community benefit agreements or are at least 25 per cent Indigenous-owned.

NDP: A future NDP government will “be guided by a commitment to free, informed and prior consent regarding any policy decisions impacting First Nations,” the party said in their response to The Narwhal’s questions. Their Ontario election platform pledges to start a formal consultation process with the Matawa Tribal Council First Nations members, and other impacted First Nations, on decisions related to the Ring of Fire.

Greens: In their response to The Narwhal’s questions, the Greens said Ontario is too often imposing its decisions on First Nations instead of partnering with them. The party is the only one that promised to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Ontario — the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which among other things, would guarantee First Nations the right to free, prior and informed consent to resource extraction on their territories. (Both B.C. and the Northwest Territories have implemented the declaration.)

The Greens would also establish models for First Nations and the province to co-manage development and share revenues fairly. They’d create a “fair, open and independent” process for First Nations to resolve land claims, and recognize Indigenous laws and tradition when negotiating and implementing any agreements. 

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5. The push toward electrification requires us to generate more power. What is your plan to increase power generation, without also increasing greenhouse gas emissions?

Progressive Conservatives: The Ford government has embarked on an “all of the above” approach when it comes to energy, opening the door, theoretically anyways, to all energy sources. The move is meant to address a shortfall in supply as we move towards electrification, and as our nuclear facilities, which provide most of our clean power, shut down for refurbishment. In practice, this has meant boosting natural gas, which they claim is a short-term measure, and making massive investments in new nuclear plants, like in Port Hope. The government has also launched a more robust version of an energy savings program it cancelled eight years ago and invested in energy storage projects.

In their Ontario election platform, the Progressive Conservatives double down on the need for more power, specifically mentioning “nuclear, hydroelectricity, natural gas and others,” noting particular investments in nuclear and hydro. They also promise to expand transmission lines both within the province and with Quebec and, interestingly, the United States — that’s despite Ford’s threat to withhold power from the states in response to tariffs. They also pledge to support oil and gas pipelines.

Notably, their platform also vows to review the mandates of the Ontario Energy Board and the Independent Electricity System Operator (which the platform spells incorrectly as the Independent Electricity Service Operator). Both are arms-length organizations that work independently to help manage and regulate the province’s electricity needs in line with the government’s objectives. Last year, the Ford government made the unprecedented decision to overrule the board after it directed Enbridge Gas to stop passing down the costs of new natural gas hookups to homeowners.

Liberals: If elected, the Liberals say they would transition Ontario’s electricity grid to a cleaner, more affordable and more reliable system by procuring 30,000 megawatts of clean electricity from nuclear, wind, solar and hydro power by 2040. They would also deliver a permanent tax credit worth 20 per cent of the installation cost of energy-saving technologies at home, such as heat pumps.

NDP: In response to The Narwhal’s questions, the NDP say they will “ensure an abundant supply of reliable and affordable energy” to reach a net-zero economy by 2050. They’ll do this by making “evidence-based and cost-effective investments” in clean energy. In their platform, they promise free or discounted electric heat pumps, offering rebates of up to $19,500, as well as additional retrofit support to renters and low-income households, and electric-vehicle rebates to all. 

Greens: The Greens plan is to make it easier for people, farmers and businesses to connect renewable energy to the grid by investing in smart grid implementation, as well as innovations such as bi-directional electric-vehicle charging, peak demand programs and battery storage. They would end the moratorium on offshore wind energy and put community and individual monetary benefit agreements in place for people who live near wind farms. The Greens would maintain nuclear generation at Bruce and Darlington power plants and, ultimately, phase out gas plants by 2035.

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6. Ontario’s electricity grid is currently dirtier than it has been in years, mostly due to increased use of natural gas. How would you tackle this problem? Do you have intentions and a plan to phase out natural gas?

Progressive Conservatives: The Ford government has already started boosting natural gas as a short-term solution to the energy supply shortfall, despite receiving advice from taxpayer-funded experts to move away from it.

Liberals: The Liberals would keep natural gas generation as a backup for peak demand and emergency situations, and explore new grid-balancing technologies.

NDP: The NDP did not directly answer the question.

Greens: The Ontario Greens pledge to phase out natural gas plants by 2035. Alternatively, they’d invest in renewable energy, like wind, solar and energy storage. They also plan to electrify transportation, buildings and industry to make the grid cleaner and more affordable.

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7. We’ve seen many examples of the Progressive Conservative government and Liberals before them keeping the reasons and methods behind government decisions hidden from the public. What will you do to make transparency a pillar of the next government?

Progressive Conservatives: The Ford government continues to be under scrutiny for the way it conducts government business. In the matter of the Greenbelt, the auditor general found political staff in the Ford government “regularly” deleted emails and used personal emails to conduct government business, which is against provincial guidelines. Although the government pledged to fix these issues, it also backslided elsewhere on transparency. The government refused to release mandate letters (previously made public) outlining the premier’s instructions to each minister. It also consistently failed to properly consult or inform Ontarians about major changes to environmental and energy policy. (Previous Liberal governments also failed to do this.)

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Liberals: Within 30 days of forming government, the Liberals say they would launch a comprehensive investigation into several of the Ford government’s dealings, including the $8.3-billion Greenbelt scandal, $2.1-billion Ontario Place deal, the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre, the $1.9-billion beer sale payout, the shift of Service Ontario centres to Staples, $1 billion in private-nursing contracts and partisan patronage appointments. The Liberals also pledge to rip up the $100-million Starlink deal with Elon Musk.

NDP: A future Ontario NDP government will “end the secretive and corrupt two-tier planning system where favoured insiders can get preferential treatment.” They also promise a more transparent procurement process, more in-house expertise (instead of private consultants) and an end to public-private partnership projects like the Eglinton Crosstown light-rail transit project, which has been under construction for more than a decade.

Greens: The Ontario Greens say, only, “Ontarians deserve a government that is honest and transparent.”

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8. Decades of research and evidence show that, in the long-term, adding new road capacity does not help traffic congestion. What’s your plan for making a real dent in the Greater Toronto Area’s traffic problem?

Progressive Conservatives: Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have spent a lot of time on the campaign trail talking about their proposal to build a tunnelled expressway under Highway 401, stretching between the Toronto suburbs of Brampton and Mississauga. The Tories have also talked about building new routes, like Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, both of which would run through Ontario’s Greenbelt. And in the fall, the Progressive Conservatives also passed a bill allowing the province to prevent the construction of new bike lanes that remove a lane of vehicle traffic, and get rid of existing bike lanes, taking aim at a select few in downtown Toronto. The language around that promise was sharpened in the party’s platform, confirming its plans for the three Toronto lanes and stating, “The province will veto and block any future municipal bike lanes that would eliminate a lane of vehicle traffic.”

Traffic experts have said none of those moves are likely to help the gridlock. Neither would removing tolls from Highway 407, a concept all of the parties have stood behind, although the details of those plans vary. Ford is also planning to let people drive faster on some highways, with a minimum speed limit of 110 kilometres per hour.

On the campaign trail, Ford pledged to bring Ottawa’s financially challenged transit service, OC Transpo, under the Crown corporation Metrolinx, which manages transit in the Greater Toronto Area. The platform confirms that position, and repeat’s Ford’s announcement of bringing back the Northlander bus route between Toronto and Cochrane. A few other transit projects made mention in the Progressive Conservatives’ platform, including expanded existing GO train routes, with more frequent service and a new stop in Bowmanville, as well as adding new lines entirely. They’re also offering cupholders on all trains, which is … nice.

Liberals: The Liberals say they support federal efforts to build the high-speed rail, and would increase two-way, all-day GO service throughout the Greater Toronto Area and southwestern Ontario. Their plan is to boost ridership and support public transportation by delivering permanent, sustainable and flexible operational funding for transit agencies.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie also pledged to take provincial responsibility for Ottawa’s OC Transpo, relieving the region of the costly light-rail transit system.

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NDP: The NDP say they will restore 50 per cent of the provincial funding for municipal transit operations cut by the Ford government. They also pledge to restore bike lanes, which the Ford government also cut, and remove tolls for the underused Highway 407.

Greens: The Greens, who have opposed Ford’s transportation plans, offered a four-part plan for giving people in Ontario better access to affordable public transit — moves that would make it easier for commuters to get around, even if it doesn’t necessarily get rid of traffic jams. Their proposals include expanding GO Transit service to see more express trains during peak hours and increased off-peak train departures.

The Greens also said they’d create an intercity electric bus service, with dedicated bus lanes to connect smaller communities, and an infrastructure fund for municipalities to build routes safe for walking, biking and using mobility devices. And on Highway 407, the Greens said they’d remove tolls from the expressway for transport trucks and create a dedicated lane for them, a move that could provide some short-term congestion relief.

This story is a collaboration between The Narwhal and The Local, a non-profit online magazine covering urban health and social issues in Toronto. You can read more about the Ontario 2025 election results over here.

The Greenbelt scandal is the elephant in the room of Ontario’s 2025 election, even as Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives try to leave it in the rearview.

It’s been more than a year since the RCMP opened an investigation into the boondoggle, which saw the Ford government open sections of environmentally protected land outside Toronto for housing construction in fall 2022. That move came at the request of a select group of well-connected developers who stood to make more than $8 billion from the deal. Though Ford ended up reversing course on the plan the following year, losing two cabinet ministers and two senior political staff in the wake of the scandal, questions remain as long as the police probe continues — and they’re quietly shaping the 2025 campaign.

The potential fallout from the Greenbelt scandal may even be among the reasons Ontario is having an election at all right now, more than a year earlier than its due. Though Ford has claimed he needs a strong mandate from voters to address tariff threats from the United States, he has been hinting at an early election since the fall — months before tariffs were even on the table and around the same time a trickle of news stories showed the Mounties were beginning to close in on members of Ford’s inner circle connected to the Greenbelt affair. Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie has since said the election call was an attempt to “cling to power” ahead of whatever moves the RCMP may make. 

A fresh round of revelations related to the scandal have even bubbled up in recent weeks. In early February, The Trillium reported that two former Ford government staffers — one a central figure in the Greenbelt changes who resigned amid the fallout, the other an employee of Ford’s re-election campaign — are being sued by a developer alleging they accepted money in exchange for promises to use “backchannel contacts” to rezone land, but did not deliver. Through a lawyer, both defendants have denied the allegations, which have not been proven in court. The Progressive Conservatives have declined to answer questions about the campaign staffer’s alleged involvement in the lawsuit but said Ford was unaware of it, and the province has never considered changes to the properties at issue. 

It’s yet another angle to a scandal that has been percolating for three years with no sign of resolution. 

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Deleted records, a stag-and-doe and massages in Las Vegas

Though Ford has apologized for the Greenbelt scandal, the whole affair left enough stink and unanswered questions for his critics to dine on for another four years. 

Ford’s complicated relationship with the Greenbelt stretches back two elections: in 2018, when the former Toronto city councillor had just become the leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives, the Ontario Liberals released a video of Ford talking about his plans to cut into the protected area at a closed-door campaign event. 

“We will open up the Greenbelt,” Ford says in the video, adding that he got the idea from some of the country’s biggest developers. “Not all of it, but we’re going to open a big chunk of it up and we’re going to start building, and making it more affordable and putting more houses out there.”

The Greenbelt, a stretch of protected land the size of Prince Edward Island that arcs around the Greater Toronto Area, has been a fixture of life around the city and its suburbs since it was created by the Dalton McGuinty government in 2005.

Most development is off-limits in the Greenbelt. McGuinty’s government intended it to protect a slice of rich farmland and green space from rapidly expanding urban sprawl in Toronto’s suburbs. Today, the protected zone encompasses popular hiking trails and farms that feed the region, from Niagara peaches and wine grapes to carrots and onions from the Holland Marsh. Its unpaved land absorbs rainwater and snowmelt that may have otherwise caused floods. It also absorbs about a fifth of the carbon emissions reported annually in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, a University of Toronto study concluded last year. 

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Even if few Ontarians know the details of the Greenbelt and some developers have opposed it over concerns about how it hampers land values, polling consistently shows the Greenbelt is a popular piece of public policy. So Ford quickly took back his remarks amid furious public backlash and promised he would leave the Greenbelt alone, a pledge that helped carry him to the premier’s office.

Ford didn’t repeat that pledge in the June 2022 provincial election. Behind closed doors and before voters finished casting their ballots, his staff had already started drawing up plans to reconsider opening the Greenbelt for development. 

Under examination by both Ontario’s auditor general and integrity commissioner, various government staffers have given different accounts of what that plan was actually supposed to be: some said they thought they’d been ordered to quickly develop and roll out a policy, while others said the government only wanted to examine the possibility. But either way, the chief of staff to then-municipal affairs minister Steve Clark embarked on a process the integrity commissioner later said was “chaotic and almost reckless” as he sought to pick parcels of Greenbelt land to carve out. 

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More than 90 per cent of the land tangled up in the fiasco was at least partially owned by two developers who approached the chief of staff, Ryan Amato, at a development industry gala to ask for Greenbelt carveouts. And when the staffer didn’t immediately say no, a developer rumour mill started churning and more requests poured in. Amato passed them on to a small group of public servants at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing who were working under non-disclosure agreements. The auditor general and integrity commissioner’s reports found he altered the criteria for Greenbelt carveouts and even the boundaries of some proposed sites to allow them to go forward.

Efforts to dissect exactly what happened during this time have been hampered by problems with the Ford government’s retention of key records. Amato, for example, kept no documentation of pivotal conversations about the Greenbelt, and the Housing Ministry team working on the carveouts referred to it using code words. Former Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk found political staff routinely deleted emails and used personal accounts for government business.

What’s undisputed, though, is that Clark brought the proposal to the entire Progressive Conservative cabinet, which signed off on the plan. It would open 7,400 acres (3,000 hectares) of Greenbelt land, spread out in 15 snippets of property, for housing construction that Ford argued would help Ontario’s housing crisis. 

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The move created more than $8 billion of wealth for the landowners, according to an estimate from the auditor general. It also prompted attention from journalists, who soon revealed developers stood to be the main beneficiaries. Ontario’s auditor general and integrity commissioner released twin reports in August 2023 that were chock-full of bombshell revelations. The public was furious, while Ford remained defiant, even as Amato and Clark resigned from their roles. (Clark has remained an MPP in the Progressive Conservative caucus, and was named government house leader last June.)

But there were also spinoff scandals. One revolved around a pre-wedding stag-and-doe party for one of Ford’s daughters in the months before the Greenbelt changes — developers were invited, and attendees were encouraged to give cash gifts to the happy couple in addition to the $150 ticket price. Another involved a Las Vegas trip involving key Tory figures and a would-be Greenbelt developer that happened in 2020. There were also allegations about an alleged unregistered lobbyist dubbed Mr. X who had close ties to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.  

Finally, in September 2023 — as new salacious details mounted about a Tory MPP getting a massage at the same time as a would-be Greenbelt developer during that Las Vegas trip, prompting more resignations in the Progressive Conservative government — Ford took it all back and apologized.

“I made a promise to you that I wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt. I broke that promise, and for that I am very, very sorry,” Ford said.

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The Greenbelt was never a solution to the housing crisis

Ford has maintained that he didn’t know what was going on at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and had no idea how the parcels of land carved out of the Greenbelt were chosen. He’s also said he and his party want to put the axed plan to build on the protected area behind them.

“I think I was pretty clear. I said I was and then I wasn’t and then I went ahead and did it,” Ford said during a debate on Feb. 17, before taking aim at his opponents. “But in saying that, I apologized to the people. Unlike any of you, when you do something wrong, you don’t apologize. I apologized to the people, we’re moving forward, we’re building homes.”

Still, he and his government have never really answered for some parts of the scandal, like campaigning for re-election in 2022 without mentioning a major shift in policy was already underway.

That’s a point the opposition leaders have landed over and over again during the 2025 campaign. “He says one thing to the public, if he does dare show up to a scrum, and another behind closed doors,” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said of Ford after the debate on Feb. 17, referring to the Greenbelt scandal. Ford didn’t show up to that scrum to face questions from reporters. 

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Another obvious critique: though Ford has maintained his only goal with the Greenbelt cuts was to build homes, Ontario’s housing crisis is now worse than ever. Even if his plan had worked, it likely wouldn’t have helped. At best, the Greenbelt carveouts were set to allow the construction of 50,000 homes — a drop in the bucket of the 1.5 million homes the provincial government has said it needs. And the government didn’t even assess whether the properties were well-suited for development. Many weren’t yet hooked up to municipal services like water and electricity and the majority of one particular property near Hamilton would have been undevelopable due to its proximity to an airport. 

After years of fighting and unfavourable trends in the housing market, Ontario is now building fewer homes than it was in 1955.

“The only homes that Doug Ford seems to want to build are mansions in the Greenbelt, benefitting wealthy land speculators and putting the profits of those speculators over the affordability needs of first-time home buyers,” Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner told supporters recently. 

It’s exactly the type of critique that will continue to dog Ford’s Progressive Conservatives even through their likely re-election — until the RCMP investigation proves otherwise. 

For more stories about how Ontario’s 2025 election will affect Toronto, head over to The Local.

The Narwhal originally published this story based on information from a source with firsthand knowledge of the announcements, who was not authorized to speak publicly on it. The federal government has since made the announcements that confirm our reporting.

Rouge National Urban Park will grow by thousands of hectares, preserving part of a wildlife corridor connecting Lake Ontario to protected land northeast of Toronto.

The expansion news came in twin announcements from the federal government Monday as Transport Canada abandons a plan to build an airport next to the park in Pickering, Ont., east of Toronto. For the last 50 years, Canada has planned to construct the airport on an expanse of agricultural land and green space known as the Pickering Lands — now, most of it will be transferred to Parks Canada instead.

Adding most of the land to the park is a win for conservationists, Indigenous leaders and farmers who have been pushing for decades for the Pickering airport plan to be cancelled. It also guarantees protection for a huge slice of green space in a region that’s also been sought for urban development. 

Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation Chief Kelly LaRocca — whose community is one of 10 in Rouge’s Indigenous advisory circle and has long opposed the Pickering airport — said she hopes the move marks the start of a better path forward. That could include co-management of the land and a First Nation Guardians program, she said in a press release, adding that her nation has asked Parks Canada to work with First Nations to develop a harvesting agreement for the park.

“The region’s natural and agricultural lands are disappearing at an alarming rate,” she said. “This land is a precious resource that can never be replaced.”

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The federal government first expropriated the Pickering Lands in 1972, taking ownership of about 7,500 hectares of prime farmland with plans for an international airport. But the government put that plan on hold in 1975 amid backlash from citizens, instead expanding Toronto Pearson International Airport and leasing the Pickering properties to residents and farmers, including some who had owned them before expropriation. 

As Transport Canada left the plan in limbo for decades, the Pickering Lands have remained undeveloped, a rare pocket of biodiversity close to Toronto. The majority of the land is now within Ontario’s Greenbelt, which the province created in 2005.

The federal government under former prime minister Stephen Harper released about 4,100 hectares of the original Pickering Lands to help form Rouge National Urban Park, which was established in 2015. Other levels of government chipped in as well, and today, the park spans more than 7,900 hectares, straddling Toronto, Pickering and the neighbouring communities of Markham and Uxbridge.

Up until now, Transport Canada held onto about 3,500 hectares in case it needed to build the Pickering airport. But its choice to axe the airport plan entirely means the majority of that land  — including the areas with the highest conservation value — will now be transferred to Parks Canada. The federal government’s intent is for the land to be added to Rouge National Urban Park, pending consultation with Indigenous communities.

It’s not clear exactly how much land will be going to the national park, though the source said Transport Canada intends to hold onto some for now and consult the public about how best to use it.

Parks Canada also announced plans Monday to build a new visitor centre for Rouge National Urban Park. 

The federal government made the announcements Monday to give the public an answer on the future of these lands before a snap provincial election, a source with firsthand knowledge told The Narwhal. Premier Doug Ford has said he intends to call that election on Wednesday, with voting set for Feb. 27. In general, the federal government avoids making local announcements while a provincial election is underway there.

The federal government may also face an election of its own this spring. 

Federal decision will conserve more land in an important wildlife corridor

Various governments have been hinting for years that the writing was on the wall for the Pickering airport idea. A Transport Canada report commissioned in 2016 concluded a new airport wouldn’t be needed in southern Ontario before 2036. The federal department announced a new study in April 2023, saying it could ultimately conclude the project wasn’t necessary. 

Around the same time, Pickering City Council withdrew its support for the project. All the while, advocates have been pushing for the airport lands to be added to Rouge National Urban Park. 

The Pickering Lands are part of the last intact wildlife corridor between Lake Ontario and the Oak Ridges Moraine, a protected rocky ridge to the north that’s also part of the Greenbelt. The corridor allows wildlife — including species at risk — to move between habitats, giving them a stronger chance of survival. The lands are directly beside the existing Rouge National Urban Park, and connected to another part of the Greenbelt to the south known as the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve. 

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But over the years, developers and politicians have also said the general area is a prime location for housing development, given how close it is to Toronto’s red-hot housing market. The area was in the spotlight during the 2023 Greenbelt scandal after the Ford government opened the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve for housing development. At the time, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault warned Ontario the biodiversity of the urban national park could be harmed by development in close proximity.

“If there was a large commercial industrial project that was announced on the edge of Banff National Park or Jasper National Park, I think that most Canadians would be outraged from coast to coast to coast,” Guilbeault said in 2023, as he launched a study to take stock of the impacts.

Ford ended up reversing the Greenbelt changes later that year, but his government has continued pushing for more housing construction in Pickering outside of protected areas.

Updated on Jan. 27, 2025, at 5:13 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include comment from the chief of Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, and to reflect that the federal government has confirmed the announcements.

The Ontario government pushed through its bill to fast-track Highway 413 and dismantle Toronto bike lanes despite internal warnings it could risk legal challenges and worsen gridlock.

Those warnings are contained in a draft of a confidential Ontario government briefing document from summer 2024, which was circulated to news outlets over the past month as Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives worked to introduce and pass Bill 212. 

The internal advice clashes with the government’s public messaging about the legislation — dubbed the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act — which it has claimed would reduce traffic jams by building highways faster and overriding municipalities to limit and remove bike lanes. Instead the draft briefing suggests the legislation could do the opposite and worsen congestion, along with risking other problems for Highway 413.

The document was first reported by the Trillium, which said it received the draft briefing from an advocacy group that obtained it from an unknown source. The document has also been reported by the Guardian. The Narwhal has reviewed the document, but has not independently verified its contents. 

Bill 212 has particular bearing on Highway 413, a signature project for the Ford government. If built, it would ring around suburbs to the north and west of Toronto, cutting through Ontario’s Greenbelt, prime farmland, waterways and protected wetlands.

The draft document shows the government was aware the bill could raise the risk of federal intervention on Highway 413, opposition from First Nations and court challenges — all factors that could add lengthy delays to the project.

Dakota Brasier, a spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, did not deny the existence of the document but declined to comment on it unless The Narwhal allowed the government to see a copy. The Narwhal declined to do so to protect the source who provided it.

The confidential draft briefing outlines the potential pitfalls and legal risks of the legislation that would eventually become Bill 212. Such briefings are a standard step as the government deliberates over any new law: bureaucrats and political staff look at what the potential problems could be, before ministers in cabinet get briefed on the idea and decide whether to move ahead with it.

It’s not clear whether the warnings in the draft document were ever seen by cabinet ministers. 

Now passed, Bill 212 allows the government to begin early construction work on Highway 413 before it finishes studying how the project will impact the environment — and before it’s done consulting First Nations.

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The highway’s environmental impact has been controversial, and in 2021 the federal government stepped in and decided to subject the 413 to its own review process. It dropped the review earlier this year, after Ontario filed a court challenge.

The draft briefing warned that allowing early construction work to go ahead before environmental studies are finished could increase the risk that federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault might once again be asked to review the project.

That came to pass with a request for federal review from an environmental group just hours after the government introduced Bill 212. Now, Guilbeault has until Jan. 19 to make a decision. If he decides to take a second look, that could delay the project for years. 

The document also warned the government may not have planned for enough time to adequately consult with First Nations, and allowing early construction work to go ahead before that “may result in assertions about the good faith nature of the consultation.”

Though the document concluded there’s a low risk a court would find the bill violated Indigenous Rights and Treaty Rights, it also flagged that First Nations could argue Ontario is not fulfilling the honour of the Crown — a Constitutional principle that mandates governments in Canada treat Indigenous Peoples fairly. 

The federal government has previously raised red flags about whether Ontario is properly consulting First Nations about the project. If Guilbeault believes Highway 413 will have a negative impact on Indigenous Peoples, he can use that as grounds to intervene on the project a second time. 

The draft document also warned new fines included in Bill 212, aimed at people and corporations trying to stop government officials from accessing their property for field studies on Highway 413 and other priority projects. The briefing warned there’s a “moderately low risk” those penalties could be found unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court of Canada could have an argument for or against it.  

Most of the debate over Bill 212 has centred on bike lanes: it gives the province the power to remove existing bike lanes and restrict new ones, targeting three bike lanes in Toronto in particular. Public servants warned the measure may be ineffective, the document shows. 

“This initiative may not reduce congestion as most research (e.g. New York, Washington, Vancouver) suggests reducing road capacity by introducing bike lanes can encourage biking and discourage car use, alleviating congestion,” the document states.

In August 2020 a then-Ontario government staffer emailed his colleagues to say Premier Doug Ford was asking about rerouting a proposed highway. 

Ryan Amato would later be central to the Greenbelt scandal and leave his job in the midst of it. 

Back in 2020, though, he was the director of stakeholder relations for then-transportation minister Caroline Mulroney — and talking with the premier about the planned Bradford Bypass.

“He wants to know the cost of moving it further north,” Amato wrote. “He is of the view the land is cheaper the further north we go.”

Amato’s message to his colleagues about the meeting, which he wrote had happened earlier that day, is captured in a set of documents obtained through freedom of information legislation. The records contain no other documentation of this meeting, or the alleged suggestion from the premier. There are no emails to set it up, calendar appointments, memos or notes. And although Amato asked his colleagues to brief him days later on the cost of changing the route of the Bradford Bypass, the documents show nothing in the way of follow-up.

In general, two separate freedom of information requests turned up scant documentation of Amato’s role during critical moments of planning for the Bradford Bypass and Highway 413 — despite the fact he appeared to be integral enough for the premier to give him suggestions about one of them. 

That was two years before Amato has said he was in the room with Ford, talking about opening the Greenbelt for housing development, according to a report from the province’s integrity commissioner. Ford and others who were in the room deny discussing changes to the protected area in that meeting.

But following this, Amato spearheaded the province’s work to change the boundaries of the Greenbelt, according to twin reports from the province’s auditor general and integrity commissioner. They allege he served as a conduit between the government and powerful developers — a process the watchdogs have said was marked by missing documentation. 

In the integrity commissioner’s report on the scandal, Amato is quoted as saying protocols implemented by a senior bureaucrat ensured “not a lot of document creation.” The newly released records about highway planning raise questions about whether allegations of missing documentation might extend to other priority projects of the Ford government. 

Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass are both slated to be built to connect Toronto’s outer suburbs. Their proposed routes run through Ontario’s Greenbelt, protected wetlands, prime farmland and endangered species habitat. 

The Ford government has argued both are needed to ease traffic on the Greater Toronto Area’s congested roads, despite decades of evidence indicating new highways attract more drivers and make the problem worse in the long run. The projects have repeatedly come under fire over their environmental impact — and because of the well-connected developers poised to benefit from them. 

Amato was in Mulroney’s office from 2019 to spring 2022, where he worked on both highway projects before he took the job that eventually placed him at the centre of the Greenbelt scandal. He moved from there to become chief of staff to former housing minister Steve Clark, which is when reports by the integrity commissioner and auditor general allege he was at the helm of a team that gave preferential treatment to a small group of well-connected land developers who could have profited from the Greenbelt cuts by at least $8 billion. At least two of those developers also owned land close to the proposed highways, and had met Amato during his time at the Transportation Ministry.

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The watchdogs also uncovered concerns about missing and deleted government records.

Both Amato and Clark resigned amid the fallout, which ended with Ford undoing the Greenbelt changes. In a resignation letter obtained by multiple news outlets, Amato wrote his role in the Greenbelt changes has been “unfairly depicted.” He didn’t respond to questions for this story.

The two sets of freedom-of-information records of Amato’s involvement in the highway projects cover five and 14 months, respectively, but are centred on big moments for each highway project. The Ministry of Transportation and the premier’s office didn’t answer questions about the documents, and whether they fairly represent Amato’s work during those periods.

The documents come as the Ford government is again seeking to fast-track its work on both highways. The Progressive Conservatives have already started early construction work on the Bradford Bypass. Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria has said he intends to do the same with Highway 413 as soon as next year, though federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is currently considering a request to review the project that could delay or block construction. 

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Few records of high-ranking bureaucrat’s work during critical periods for Ontario’s Highway 413, Bradford Bypass

The records of Amato’s work on the highway projects were given to The Narwhal by people who requested them from the Ministry of Transportation via freedom of information legislation after Amato’s role in the Greenbelt scandal became public. 

The scopes of those freedom of information requests wouldn’t have captured every single piece of documentation of Amato’s work on the highway projects — for example, they wouldn’t have included his contact with landowners along the routes of Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, a key portion of his job. 

Even within the limited scopes of each request, however, the number of records found by the Ministry of Transportation does appear unusually low. A director of stakeholder relations is meant to be communicating with senior political staff and ministers and weighing in on strategy, among other things, according to three online postings for similar Ontario government jobs. Those tasks typically leave a paper trail. 

One information request was filed by Vaughan City Coun. Marilyn Iafrate, a longtime critic of Highway 413: it asked the ministry to search Amato’s communications with his colleagues about the 413 from July 1, 2019, to Aug. 31, 2020, a span of 14 months. During that time the Ministry of Transportation was putting a heavy focus on Highway 413 — it tweaked the route, formally resumed a stalled environmental assessment and started seeking feedback from the public on the project.

Iafrate’s request turned up just six records. Two were stakeholder contact lists, while the remaining four were short email chains spanning a few days or less. Some were about stakeholder meetings, while others contained a map of Highway 413 or details of public information sessions.

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The councillor told The Narwhal she was “shocked” at how little documentation there was.

“As an elected official at the municipal level, I get hundreds of emails a day,” Iafrate said in an email to The Narwhal. “Seeing the lack of emails for a government employee definitely makes me say that this doesn’t pass the smell test.”

A second request was filed by Margaret Prophet, the executive director of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition, a grassroots environmental group that opposes the Bradford Bypass. It asked for records of Amato’s work on the bypass, among them meeting notes, reports, memos, calendar appointments and emails with staff in Mulroney and Ford’s offices. It covers a span of five months, from April 1, 2020, to Aug. 31, 2020. During that time, the Ministry of Transportation began seeking public feedback on a plan to exempt the Bradford Bypass from undergoing a full environmental assessment. 

Prophet’s request turned up nine records. None contained calendar appointments. For the most part, they were also brief email chains with colleagues. Two revolved around stakeholder meetings — one Prophet attended, one involving a municipal government. Others were emails between Amato and the premier’s office, or his colleagues at the ministry.

Ford’s request to reroute the Bradford Bypass, as Amato outlined in an email to his colleagues, doesn’t appear to have come to fruition, but the documents don’t contain any further discussion of why not — despite Amato asking the others to include him and another staffer on a briefing later that week. Ford’s office, Mulroney’s office and the Ministry of Transportation didn’t answer questions about whether the conversation between Ford and Amato happened as depicted.

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Prophet said the results of her freedom of information request made her question whether issues raised about deleted or missing records during the Greenbelt scandal might have actually been happening for years.  

“I’m looking at evidence that should be there and it’s not there,” she said in a phone interview. “That leads me to draw questions of how transparent this is.” 

“I would question the integrity of the decisions being made because they’re intentionally not being made in a way that could involve public scrutiny or public input.”

Amato and the Ministry of Transportation didn’t answer questions from The Narwhal about why the freedom of information requests would have turned up so few records, and how involved the former staffer was with work on Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass. 

The Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim — which handles appeals related to freedom of information requests and oversees the provincial government’s record-keeping — said it isn’t hearing any appeals related to record retention problems at the Ministry of Transportation.

Kosseim’s office is, however, hearing several appeals for freedom of information requests about the Greenbelt scandal. The commissioner has said she’ll publish a report with her findings once all of those cases are concluded, but it’s not clear when that might be. 

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Deleted emails, personal accounts and code words: questions remain about the Ford government’s handling of sensitive records

The absence of detailed records of Amato’s work on the highway projects means the public is unable to see what one key staffer was doing and how his work might have informed decisions — a theme that was among the reasons the Greenbelt changes became a major scandal.

In their reports on the Greenbelt changes, both the province’s auditor general and the integrity commissioner noted some key records appeared to be deleted or missing.

The auditor general alleged political staff within the Ford government had been deleting emails and using personal accounts to discuss changes to the Greenbelt with lobbyists, a practice that goes against government guidelines. The Narwhal has reported on one case where Amato used a personal email to communicate with a development lobbyist, though he forwarded the exchange to his government account.

The province has asked Amato twice to hand over records about the Greenbelt changes from his personal email account, but the former staffer has refused, according to the Toronto Star. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing told the Star it has no legal mechanism to force Amato to comply.

Iafrate’s freedom of information request also asked for records from Amato’s personal email. In response, the Ministry of Transportation said it was “unable” to do so. (Emails related to government work are still subject to freedom of information law even if they were sent from personal accounts.)

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As the government worked on the Greenbelt changes, many discussions happened over the phone or through documents delivered via USB drive, the province’s integrity commissioner found. The commissioner wrote he “was also advised that phones had been replaced and text messages had been lost at that time.” 

Government staff working on the Greenbelt changes also used code words like “G*” and “special project.” The government has not answered questions about the use of code words, which could effectively conceal documents from anyone trying to find them by searching keywords such as “Greenbelt.”

It’s illegal in Ontario to alter, conceal or destroy a record with the intention of shielding it from freedom of information. Code words or other measures that “thwart the identification of records for transparency and accountability” are also not allowed under the law.  But proving intent is difficult, and officials who destroy records in Canada rarely if ever face consequences for it, the Globe and Mail reported in 2023. In Ontario, the maximum penalty for those who are convicted of such an offence is $5,000. 

The opposition Ontario NDP have questioned the Ford government’s motives.  

“What this looks like is intent to conceal,” party leader Marit Stiles said in March. “People covering their tracks because they know what they’re doing is wrong.”

Amato and the Ford government have not answered questions from The Narwhal about internal records retention practices. 

In the fallout of the Greenbelt scandal, the auditor general recommended the Progressive Conservatives clean up practices around records retention. The government agreed and sent a memo instructing staff to “ensure adherence to records retention requirements, including the documentation of materials received by third parties and only use government emails for work related matters.” The scandal also prompted rounds of ethics training for government staff.