My question is to the Premier.

Do you remember when the Premier promised up and down that he would never touch the greenbelt? I do, too.

Yesterday this government tabled a bill to repeal the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act. This repeal will end the protection of 4,500 acres of prime greenbelt farmland in Durham. About one third of this land is reportedly owned or controlled by the powerful landowner Silvio DeGasperis, who acquired these farm properties for next to nothing two decades ago. Mr. DeGasperis has donated boatloads to the PC Party since the Premier’s election, including to the Premier’s leadership campaign and his riding association. The only thing standing in the way of Mr. DeGasperis’s ability to make untold millions of dollars is the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act, and the Premier’s government just made that go away. Mr. DeGasperis is about to get much, much richer from land that until yesterday was protected in perpetuity. Does the Premier understand how shady this looks?

The damning articles from the Toronto Star and the Narwhal highlight just how rotten things have gotten.

In addition to the Durham agricultural lands, Mr. DeGasperis and his well-connected family are poised to profit immensely from other lands that are also being removed from the greenbelt. According to the CBC, the DeGasperis family owns three parcels of land in Richmond Hill that the Premier wants to remove from the greenbelt. And just last year, a company controlled by the DeGasperis family bought greenbelt land in Vaughan that is also being removed—remarkably lucky timing.

This Premier has frequently accused the previous government of political corruption.

So my question is, what does the Premier think we should make of these questionable greenbelt deals?