DEVELOPING THE NEW INNISFIL LANDS

NDP keeps up attack on McGuinty over developers
The Canadian Press

LISTOWEL, Ont. — The opposition parties can take all
the shots they want, Premier Dalton McGuinty said
Thursday, as long as people know he would never
betray their trust by giving special favours to
those who make donations to the Liberal Party.

For the second day in a row, the New Democrats
demanded answers about a land transfer they claim
rewarded developers who paid $5,000 each to attend
a private dinner with McGuinty. They charge legislation
that followed the dinner increased the value of the
developers' lands by about $30 million.

McGuinty wasn't in the legislature Thursday, but
accused the NDP of playing politics with the issue
when he responded during a local announcement in
this rural southwestern Ontario community.

"They're doing what they do, and you guys gotta
write the stories, but I've been doing this for
20 years now, and I hope that people get the sense
that I wouldn't do that stuff," McGuinty said.

"That would be to betray the confidence of
Ontarians." Voters deserve to know who attended
the May 2008 dinner and what was discussed, said
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

"The average Ontarian who's worried about their
ER closing or losing a child-care space or not
being able to get a job -- they can't pay $5,000
a plate to have the ear of the premier and of his
top cabinet ministers," she said.

"So who was there? What was being talked about?
These are pretty basic questions that I think the
government needs to come clean on."

McGuinty declined to say if the developers lobbied
him at the dinner for the legislation.

"I can't recall what we talked about at a dinner
last week, let alone a dinner that we had two years
ago," he said.

The NDP say members of the East Moratorium Land
Owners, a registered lobby group, met with McGuinty
and several cabinet ministers at a private home
in Barrie in May 2008. Elections Ontario records
show about 20 developers paid $5,000 each to attend.

Last December, the Liberal government passed
legislation to transfer nearly 1,000 acres of
land the developers own in Innisfil to the city
of Barrie -- part of a larger land transfer --
ending a development freeze on their lands in
the process.

The government acted on the recommendations of
a provincial facilitator who was trying to mediate
the dispute between the city of Barrie and Innisfil,
said McGuinty.

"We relied on the independent advice of a facilitator,"
he said. "We did what we thought was the best thing
to do to serve the public interest in the circumstances,
simple as that."

The NDP said the developers paid as little as $25,000
an acre for the lands in question, which have been
listed at $75,000 an acre since the bill became law,
even before they are developed.

The best way to clear the air is to release the
facilitator's report, which the government still
hasn't done, Horwath said.

"We still don't have the answers to those questions,"
she said.

"Put the report on the table, blow the lid off this
thing. Come clean and let people know exactly what
is in that report."