Barrie-area developers didn’t get special deal, premier says

NDP alleges new law benefits Barrie investors who attended fundraiser
By Rob Ferguson Toronto Star
Queen’s Park Bureau New Democrats charge that Barrie-area developers who attended a $5,000-a-plate fundraiser for Premier Dalton McGuinty got a lucrative deal that could make them millions through a new provincial law ending a development freeze on land they own.
McGuinty dismissed any connection between the dinner held in May 2008 and the Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Adjustment Act passed last spring, which NDP justice critic Peter Kormos said has increased the value of the land south of Barrie by about $30 million, going by current market values.
McGuinty said the suggestion from Kormos that the Liberals were taking cash from developers in return for favours is wrong.
“I understand where my honourable colleague is going on this matter, and I reject his allegations and his not-so-subtle accusations completely and thoroughly,” McGuinty told the House on Wednesday.
The law “is based on solid growth and planning principles,” he added.
Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Bradley said the land decision was made based on a report from an independent facilitator mediating a dispute between Barrie and neighbouring Innisfil Township. But Bradley’s office would not release the report.The new law, which took effect Jan. 1, transferred a swath of land – about 12 kilometres wide and up to three kilometres deep straddling Highway 400 south of Barrie – from Innisfil to the fast-growing city on the shores of Lake Simcoe.
Kormos said some developers paid as little as $26,000 an acre for land that is now being advertised at $75,000 per acre.