Doug Ford shuffles cabinet after housing minister resigns amid Greenbelt controversy

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford shuffled his cabinet Monday after Steve Clark resigned as Housing Minister following weeks of outcry over the Ford government’s decision to open select lands in the Greenbelt for development and a scathing report from the province’s Integrity Commissioner that found Mr. Clark violated ethics laws.

The significant shakeup will also see two senior ministers switch portfolios and new faces added to key roles in the housing and transportation files.

The changes were announced by press release late Monday afternoon after Mr. Clark, who resisted opposition calls to resign for weeks and was backed by Mr. Ford, said in a letter posted to social media that he was stepping down.

Mr. Ford announced that Paul Calandra, formerly minister of long-term care, will become Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, after Mr. Clark resigned to “take accountability for what has transpired.” Mr. Calandra, often a defender of Mr. Ford in the Ontario legislature, will stay on his role as House Leader.

Ministers Caroline Mulroney and Prabmeet Sarkaria are switching roles, with Ms. Mulroney becoming Treasury Board President and Mr. Sarkaria taking over the Transportation file, which has been mired in controversy over delays to the Eglinton-Crosstown light rail project in Toronto.

Toronto MPP Stan Cho, associate minister of transportation, will become Minister of Long-Term Care.

Other changes include Rob Flack as associate minister of housing, with a specific mandate on attainable housing and modular homes; and Todd McCarthy becomes associate minister of transportation.

Nina Tangri, who was associate minister of housing, becomes associate minister of small business.

EDITORIAL: The ugly Greenbelt saga just got uglier

Following the shuffle, Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles reiterated her call for Mr. Ford to recall the legislature and reverse his Greenbelt plan.

“Mr. Ford can rearrange the deck chairs all he likes but it’s not going to change the fact that Ontarians are fed up with a corrupt government rigging the system to help a select few of their insiders get even richer – at everyone else’s expense,” she said in a statement.

“With his slapdash team in place, he has even less of a reason not to recall the Legislature and face the music at Queen’s Park.”

The province’s decision late last year to break its repeated promises and remove 15 parcels of land from the Greenbelt – an environmentally-protected zone that arcs around the Greater Toronto Area – for development has been met with significant criticism from opposition MPPs, First Nations chiefs and environmental groups.

Two independent government watchdogs concluded the process for selected the lands – spearheaded by Mr. Clark’s former chief of staff, Ryan Amato – was biased and favoured a select group of developers.

Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake found last week that Mr. Clark had breached two sections of the Members’ Integrity Act by failing to properly oversee his own office.