[thistleclub]

Mike Harris’s former environment minister appointed by province to head Greenbelt Council
(Toronto Star, David Rider & Breanna Xavier Carter, Apr 29 2021)

Retired MPP Norm Sterling, an Ontario environment minister in the Mike Harris government of the 1990s, is the Ford government’s choice to lead the Greenbelt Council.

Sterling replaces David Crombie, who resigned in November over the province’s controversial limiting of local conservation authorities’ ability to deny development permits for sensitive lands. Crombie called the moves by Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government “high-level bombing” that “needs to be resisted.”

Sterling’s appointment set off a new wave of criticism for the Ford government, which has frequently used ministerial zoning orders to force particular development approvals and is pushing to build Highway 413 through parts of the Greenbelt, a band of protected farmland, forests, rivers and lakes.

The Opposition NDP noted Sterling voted in 2005 against the creation of the Greenbelt.

“Putting the fox in charge of the henhouse is classic Doug Ford,” said NDP environment critic Sandy Shaw in a statement.

“Time and time again Ford has been busted trying to pave the Greenbelt as a favour to his donors. Ontarians have a right to be worried about this appointment.”

In 1995, Sterling faced criticism for slashing the Environment Ministry’s budget by 40 per cent while arguing that “implementing stronger environmental policies” would counter the funding loss.


Read it in full here.