Michael Mendelson is a former assistant secretary of the cabinet office, and Gord Evans a former deputy clerk of the executive council, in the Ontario provincial government.
On Dec. 14, 2022, Ontario implemented the Ford government’s controversial Greenbelt changes. The order-in-council and new provincial regulation required to make these changes did not magically appear out of thin air, or at the whim of a single minister – they represented an end point in a lengthy, deliberative cabinet decision-making process. Or, at least, they ought to have.
We served in senior cabinet office positions for the Bob Rae and Mike Harris governments in Ontario, sitting in on hundreds of cabinet meetings over a seven-year period during the 1990s. Under both Mr. Rae and Mr. Harris, rigorous mechanisms ensured that priority items came to cabinet with a number of comprehensive background and alternative options. The cabinet office, staffed by non-partisan public servants, and the premier’s office, staffed by political appointees, would thoroughly review proposals by ministries, often producing tense exchanges. It was understood that the jobs of the cabinet office and the premier’s office were to ask the tough questions, making certain there were no surprises when the item went to cabinet itself.
If something controversial or untoward was transpiring, alarm bells would sound and a range of intervention mechanisms would come into play. For example, “four corners” meetings might be convened where cabinet office and premier’s office officials would meet with ministry public service and political staff to iron out prospective problems. As the formal proposal began to near cabinet, briefings would intensify as decision-making documents were painstakingly assessed. Before the cabinet meeting, the premier, along with the premier’s chief of staff and policy director, would be briefed by the secretary of cabinet and the cabinet office policy head to flag any contentious issues.
Did things ever fall through the cracks? Of course. But would the Ford government’s Greenbelt fiasco have occurred? Not without the premier’s approval.
To start with, a ministry chief of staff would never have been able to run roughshod over ministry staff to distort land-selection criteria, avoid public consultation or place confidentiality agreements on non-political staff members, as has been alleged in a report from Ontario’s Auditor-General on the Greenbelt decision-making process. The deputy minister would have known that these shenanigans would be uncovered in the cabinet decision-making process and would have put a stop to them, or at the very least required written confirmation from the minister that this was on his or her orders. Moreover, the deputy minister would have reported all this to the secretary of cabinet, who in turn would have sought direction from the premier.
If an item like the Greenbelt changes still proceeded, the confidential briefing documents for cabinet would not have omitted answers to obvious questions: What is the evidence for Greenbelt land being needed to meet housing targets? What was the process for identifying the land to be extracted from the Greenbelt? Did the process conform with established criteria and, if not, why? How long would it take to build infrastructure to support major tracts of development? What would it cost and who would pay for it? Most importantly, alternative options would have been identified; for example, would it have been feasible to expropriate Greenbelt land at current market prices before changing zoning rules, so that the potential $8.3-billion windfall would accrue to the public rather than to speculative private profit?
The Auditor-General’s scathing Greenbelt report identified several points at which the Greenbelt decision-making process failed. She recommended that the government adopt measures to prevent future breakdowns of this magnitude. Fortunately, the government should not have to look too far for ideas. The necessary safeguards have been routinely practised by past Ontario governments.
This is not to say that the Greenbelt mess would have been impossible in the 1990s. No amount of due diligence by gatekeepers can override a determined premier. A cabinet secretary or premier’s chief of staff can inform and advise, often strongly, but the premier ultimately decides.
So, what really happened in those Whitney Block briefing rooms in 2022? We have no idea, but something is rotten in the state rooms of Queen’s Park. If the Ford government has gutted the due-diligence process put in place by previous Ontario governments, who is ultimately responsible for the multiple failures documented by the Auditor-General? Where were the guardrails?