With ‘holy water’ and ‘carte blanche,' Paul Calandra cleaned up the Greenbelt scandal, sources say

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.

A year ago, Premier Doug Ford gave his most battle-tested cabinet minister a job that could make or break his government: cleaning up the Greenbelt scandal.

Steve Clark resigned as municipal affairs and housing minister on Sept. 4, 2023. It had been just five days since he’d been found by Ontario’s integrity commissioner to have broken MPPs’ ethics law for having “chosen to stick his head in the sand” as his former chief of staff steered public servants’ collection of properties to remove from the Greenbelt.

Hours after Clark’s resignation, the premier’s office announced Ford had tapped Paul Calandra — a seasoned fixer — to take over.

Less than three weeks after Calandra replaced Clark, another of Ford’s cabinet ministers and the premier’s housing policy director resigned. They’d both gone on a 2020 Las Vegas trip involving a would-be Greenbelt developer, as The Trillium first reported, and then provided the integrity commissioner incorrect information about it.

Ford’s PCs had taken a drastic hit in the polls by then. Under intense public pressure last Sept. 21, Ford apologized for removing the 15 land parcels from the Greenbelt and promised to return the 7,400 acres to their previous protections.

So Calandra’s cleanup job began.

One of his earliest moves was cleaning house of his predecessor’s staff. By the end of last September, Calandra’s chief of staff from his previous appointment — long-term care minister — moved over to the minister of municipal affairs and housing’s office.

Ryan Amato, Clark’s previous chief, resigned about two weeks before Clark. Kirstin Jensen, who had been deputy chief, exited the government within weeks. Most of Clark’s leftover staff either moved to another minister’s office, transferred elsewhere within the government, or left it entirely in the following weeks.

Sometime before then, according to five well-placed sources, Calandra sprinkled at least one of Clark’s leftover staffers with water, describing it as “holy water” meant to “cleanse” them of their Greenbelt-related sins.

Calandra’s office did not respond to a request by The Trillium to confirm or deny this.

None of the five sources said they’d personally witnessed Calandra sprinkling water on anyone. However, they felt what they were told by staffers who did was indicative of Calandra’s treatment of ministerial staff he’d inherited from his predecessor and how he’s perceived among much of the Ford government rank and file.

Another well-placed source said they were aware Calandra suggested performing a cleanse of sorts but wasn’t aware he’d followed through with it.

Some of these sources explained they felt the act was meant in jest and was not mean-spirited, but it wasn’t received as such.

In the months after Ford appointed Calandra atop the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, several non-political senior public servants were either reassigned or left the government entirely as well.

The Trillium granted sources referred to in this article anonymity to protect them from possible reprisal.

Since Calandra’s appointment as housing minister one year ago, Ford’s Progressive Conservatives appear to have recovered from their most dire controversy — at least for now. The party has recovered its polling lead over its opposition but Ontario’s housing challenges and the province’s affordability woes have persisted.

And Calandra’s reputation as one of Ford’s most reliable yet polarizing ministers has grown.

For Calandra, Queen’s Park is a second chance at a political career. As an MP in Stephen Harper’s federal government, he was perhaps best known for emotional and partisan performances in question period. He was defeated in the 2015 federal election won by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

Under Ford, he has become the premier’s Swiss Army knife — his go-to fix for difficult situations. When the minister of long-term care resigned in 2022, Ford tapped Calandra to take over the challenging file. When the premier gets a broadside from the opposition in question period, it’s been Calandra who’s answered for him. 

He continued the latter role when the legislature resumed sitting last fall, just four days after Ford’s Greenbelt U-turn.

Two weeks later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police revealed it had officially launched an investigation into whether the Greenbelt scandal involved a criminal element. 

Days after that, Calandra introduced Bill 136, the Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, to reverse the Greenbelt removals from the previous year and require future changes to be passed by a majority of MPPs. It would end up being a fraction of the Ford government’s municipal affairs and housing policy that he’d embark on reversing.

Next up were numerous changes to a dozen municipalities’ official plans. Copies of Calandra’s calendars, obtained using a freedom-of-information request, show that last Oct. 20 — a Friday — he and staff received a concerning briefing. Thousands of potentially sensitive records related to the Greenbelt land swap and how municipal official plan changes were decided were due for release to Environmental Defence via the freedom-of-information system.

At a quickly assembled news conference held the morning of the ensuing Monday, Calandra promised to undo most changes the province made to the official plans for Barrie, Belleville, Guelph, Halton, Hamilton, Niagara, Ottawa, Peel, Peterborough, Waterloo, Wellington County, and York.

“The process (behind the municipal plan approvals) is one that I was just not comfortable with … there was just a little bit too much involvement from individuals within the previous minister’s office,” Calandra said last Oct. 23.

A week later, Environmental Defence released thousands of pages of ministry records. The documents offered new glimpses into how the municipal plan changes came to be, and how they were connected to the Greenbelt changes, including how some of the same developers were set to benefit. 

Calandra tabled Bill 150, the Planning Statute Amendment Law Act, to reverse changes to the dozen municipalities’ plans last Nov. 16.

The Progressive Conservatives passed Bills 136 and 150 just before the legislature took its winter break from sitting last December. 

Around the same time, last Dec. 6, Calandra apologized to developers during a speech at the Building Industry and Land Development Association’s (BILD) annual general meeting luncheon. He said the “failures” of the recent months were the fault of government and not the industry. 

“We will not repeat those mistakes going forward,” Calandra said.

One week later, on Dec. 13, Calandra announced the cancellation of Peel’s dissolution and audits of six municipalities, the potential revocation or revision of 22 minister’s zoning orders, and the creation of a new process for accepting requests for MZOs, and for issuing them.

Over the months following Ford’s Sept. 21, 2023 apology — despite the flurry of related policy reversals and the RCMP’s investigation — the Greenbelt scandal fizzled. Near the end of last year, surveys by multiple major polling firms indicated the PCs had regained a similarly dominant standing over the other parties as they’d held before the scandal exploded.

The PCs have maintained a similar level of support ever since, according to more recent polls by the same firms.

“(Calandra) was trusted to clean it up in a way where there wouldn't be any corruption and there would be a clear sense of change and overhauling process, and I think he has accomplished that,” one source close to the government said.

The Greenbelt scandal’s cloud, however, has remained over the Ford government, including Calandra’s office’s operations, according to several well-placed sources. 

Six consultants working in government relations who The Trillium spoke to agreed that lobbyists and developers' access to Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing officials was significantly limited after Calandra was appointed minister.

“The industry is kind of being shut out of a lot of the decision-making process that’s occurring,” said one lobbyist, who called the change in tack, “the Greenbelt effect.”

“It’s been exceptionally harder to get a meeting with a senior MMAH minister’s office staffer,” another lobbyist said.

“It’s like they’re trying to create the perception that things were very different from how they were,” another lobbyist said. 

Another lobbyist said it was particularly difficult to engage with new minister’s office staff early in Calandra’s tenure, which they attributed to a new minister and new staff needing to get up to speed. At some point “you have to start engaging” with the industry, said the source, who added that they felt it took too long with how important housing is to the government’s overall agenda. 

One lobbyist explained that Calandra’s office’s tepid engagement with the development industry compared to his predecessor's has hurt builders’ optimism.

In response to recommendations by the auditor general, the Ford government promised to better track lobbying, including by creating a repository to track third-party submissions that may influence policy.

Calandra’s calendars from his first few months as municipal affairs and housing minister suggest he was more focused on engaging with Ontario’s mayors. From Sept. 6, 2023 to Jan. 19, 2024, his calendars included 32 meetings or other entries involving one or more mayor.

In an omnibus bill this spring, the PCs re-implemented numerous changes to municipalities’ official plans that Bill 150 had undone months earlier. The un-reversal came after Calandra asked mayors of affected cities and regions whether they’d actually like to keep the provincially imposed changes.

Two lobbyists said they felt the rapid reversal-unreversal could have been avoided by looping in the development industry. “They’re being reactive to how the industry takes their policy changes after it's introduced as opposed to before,” one lobbyist said.

Another lobbyist said Bill 150 put serious strain on the government's relationship with the development industry. Donations from normally reliable sources dried up, and folks who'd previously held fundraisers were sitting on the sidelines, they said.

In April, Calandra quietly revoked six MZOs and amended another, like he’d proposed in December. One he’d threatened to revoke was spared. The ministry is still tracking another 14 for progress and aims to decide their fates mid-next year. 

MZOs are most commonly used by the housing minister to overrule municipalities’ planning rules or decisions and can fast-track development proposals. They were seldom issued before Ford’s PCs came into government. Clark issued upwards of 100, more than every previous housing minister combined. The auditor general is currently working on an audit of the government’s processes for selecting and approving MZOs.

As part of Bill 150, the government increased its protections against lawsuits for revoking or changing MZOs. It then eased up on this immunity through legislation passed this spring to re-allow lawsuits against the government if it changes MZOs given for transit-oriented community projects.

The Ford government’s latest housing-focused legislation — Calandra’s Bill 185, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act — also undid controversial changes to development charges that municipalities railed against since they were proposed in 2022. 

The bill, however, was overshadowed ahead of its tabling by what wasn’t in it: a law change allowing as-of-right fourplexes across Ontario.

A fourplex is a four-unit dwelling on a single lot. To make fourplexes “as-of-right” provincewide would be to allow them on any residential lot. 

Bill 23, Clark’s More Homes Built Faster Act from 2022 that controversially changed development charges, had also allowed triplexes as-of-right in Ontario.

As The Trillium reported in mid-March, according to three well-placed sources, Calandra wanted to allow as-of-right fourplexes but was rebuffed by Ford and others in the government sharing the premier’s opposition. 

The premier’s and housing minister’s dispute over fourplexes wasn’t an isolated incident, according to five well-placed sources, who all said their relationship has strained since a year ago. At times, Calandra has also ruffled the feathers of others in Ford’s cabinet and the PC caucus more widely since being made municipal affairs and housing minister, sources said. 

He took the role, paired with that of government house leader, as having “carte blanche,” said one source close to the government.

“No one can tell other ministers what to do except for the premier — but Paul does,” said one government source.

Another government source said Calandra was effectively made a “super minister,” and acted like it. 

His aggressive Greenbelt-clean-up effort and approach to reforming the Ford government’s housing policy made some in the government “uncomfortable,” said another well-placed source. But, “he’s essential to challenging preconceived notions” about housing and “going back to basics,” they added.

“I think different ministers are just trying to figure out: what is our housing plan?” one of the close-to-government sources said. “It’s changing so much that there’s no real certainty or clarity on how to proceed right now, or on what it is that we stand for, and naturally that’s caused some rifts.”

They added, however, “In terms of the government meeting their housing targets … I truly think that the government — Calandra’s office — is taking things backwards.”

On June 6, hours after the legislature rose for its summer break, Ford’s office announced his largest front-bench shakeup since just after the 2022 election.

The assignment of government house leader was given to Clark, who’d sat in the PC backbenches since exiting cabinet nine months earlier.

Calandra remains the municipal affairs and housing minister. Many of the sources The Trillium spoke to said they’d felt his previous collection of roles was unsustainable within the Ford government.

Since 2022, the Ford government has been working toward a target of facilitating the building of 1.5 million homes in Ontario by 2031, as its housing affordability task force said “must” be done “to address the supply shortage.”

Roughly half as many housing starts were recorded in Ontario as would be needed to hit its target, one-quarter of the way toward it. New housing starts are on track to fall for the second year in a row.

—With files from Aidan Chamandy