Read on Twitter
A Saturday evening #onpoli shocker: the chair of Doug Ford’s Greenbelt Council, former PC MP David Crombie, has resigned over changes to conservation authorities. Calls them “disastrous, and “high-level bombing” that “needs to be resisted.”
Crombie, who is also a former mayor of Toronto, says the changes will stifle or shut down public debate and “cuts out the heart” of watershed planning.
Crombie leans centre-right and is widely respected. See this piece @spaikin wrote a few years ago. https://www.tvo.org/article/torontos-tiny-perfect-mayor-david-crombie-turns-80-this-weekend
As Greenbelt Council chair, Crombie advised the province to change course on a bunch of environmental moves, advice it mostly didn’t heed. When I interviewed him in August, he wouldn’t say a bad word about the government — just that he gives advice, it’s up to them to follow it.
All this to say, my eyebrows are raised
If you’re curious about the changes to conservation authorities, you can read about them here — I first reported on this a few weeks ago https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/11/11/news/ford-government-take-powers-away-conservation-authorities
The government also made some very notable amendments to the changes this week, while I was out sick. @DavidHains did a wonderful job of explaining them here: https://twitter.com/davidhains/status/1335047653449756673
So I guess this means I need to get back to work soon, eh?
Oh, I almost forgot: Crombie is the second member of the Greenbelt Council to resign recently. Environmental biologist and land use planner Linda Pim resigned almost exactly month ago: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/11/04/news/doug-ford-greenbelt-council-resigns-wetland
Response from @SteveClarkPC, who says Crombie’s term was about to expire and the government was already looking for a new chair. #onpoli https://twitter.com/steveclarkpc/status/1335368026863099904
I'm not back at work yet -- still resting as I recover from covid -- but if you want to read a story about this, the excellent @njaved has you covered: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/12/05/david-crombie-resigns-as-chair-of-greenbelt-council-over-ford-governments-stifling-changes-to-conservation-authorities-mandate.html
