Matt

A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in.

[Matt @matycake]

Never mind the overt corruption that is being put on full view by the AGs report. The math doesn't even work! All opening the greenbelt does is generate billions in profits for 3 developers and create more homes for the already-wealthy-enough-to-own types. Harmful, at best.

[Matt @matycake]

@fordnation The greenbelt will be filled with only single-family homes. Avg 2300 sq ft @ $250/ sq ft to build (land inclusive), that's $575,000. That's the best case scenario break-even point for your buddies. So those homes will sell for +/- $750,000. Not what I would call affordable....

[Matt @matycake]

@NoCyclopathTO @g_meslin I was on vacation in the Netherlands and saw a fire truck use bike path to bypass a traffic jam. All the bikes moved out of the way. Turns out they build the paths to support the weight of emergency vehicles for that exact situation. No idea why we can't do that here too.

[Gil Meslin @g_meslin]

Rush through legislation.
Expropriate land.
Provide no details.
Provide no business case.
Exclude local government.
Undermine the central waterfront.
Sell out Toronto.
…and sell it to JP Morgan.

[Matt @matycake]

@robdeutschmann The transit hub site is huge. I'm still failing to see why other parts of the site (i.e., closer to King & Victoria) can't be used for staging at least for right now, as construction on those parts of the property isn't happening until well after these initial works.

[Matt @matycake]

@mario4thenorth The ruling is only what it is because the Region allowed it on that site intentionally. If it was a random encampment, it'd be cleared in a day. This doesn't set any meaningful precedent for any encampment to exist in perpetuity.

[Eric Lombardi (EricForOLP.ca) 🇨🇦🚀 @EricDLombardi]

Frankly, heads should roll over this.

At Pearson, and at Transport Canada.

Many Canadians have lost trust because they feel like our institutions have become corrupted and captured by insiders.

They’re not wrong, and there is rarely any accountability.

[Eric Lombardi (EricForOLP.ca) 🇨🇦🚀 @EricDLombardi]

Canadian leaders are too afraid to engage seriously with the frustration many normal people feel about immigration after the last few years.

But I share many of their concerns.

We have made honest conversation too difficult. And in Ontario especially, we have been naive about the effects of sudden population growth on housing, wages, infrastructure, public services, and yes, social and cultural cohesion.

Immigration has historically been one of Ontario’s greatest strengths. It helped build our industries, our cities, and our prosperity.

But many Ontarians feel gaslit if they express frustration about current circumstances.

Young people watched rents explode. Entry-level work became more competitive and lower paid. Colleges transformed into immigration pathways. Infrastructure and healthcare struggled to keep up. It has changed our politics, too.

People are not imagining this. Ontario experienced a genuine immigration shock. This at least is somewhat acknowledged.

And while Ottawa deserves plenty of blame, Ontario cannot pretend this simply happened to us.

Doug Ford’s government helped create the conditions for this crisis by blowing up the higher education funding model.

They froze tuition, underfunded colleges and universities, then allowed institutions to make up the difference by massively expanding international student enrollment.

That turned parts of our higher education system into an immigration-processing business.

Now Ontario now needs a reset.

And because immigration policy is ultimately federal, Ontario will need to work closely with (and pressure) Ottawa to pursue a system that is sustainable, orderly, and capable of maintaining public trust.

Permanent immigration should return to a more normal and sustainable baseline, and no longer be subject to insiders claiming “labour shortages”.

Over the next 5-10 years, Canada should gradually unwind the enormous temporary resident population from roughly 5 million people nationally to well under 1 million. Some, of course, should be offered a path to stay, but many cannot and we need to honestly acknowledge that.

That likely means a prolonged period of near-flat population growth.

Going forward, temporary worker, asylum, and student streams need to shrink substantially. More than they have. Visa rules need to actually mean something. Asylum claims cannot quietly become a parallel permanent residency system.

At the same time, we should reward people who follow the rules. If someone came legally, worked or studied honestly, avoided welfare, and left when required, they should receive a meaningful advantage if they later apply to immigrate permanently.

And finally, we need to remember what immigration policy is for.

It is not primarily a humanitarian program. It is a civilization-building and economy-building program.

Ontario and Canada should prioritize immigrants with the skills, education, economic potential, and cultural compatibility to help build a prosperous, cohesive, high-trust society.

[TDot Resident @TDotResident]

#ONpoli

Just to recap: Therme claimed to own multiple spas that belonged to a different company, claimed to have construction partnerships that didn’t exist, and also didn’t meet the financial requirements — and Doug Ford still decided to give them a 95-year lease.

[Matt @matycake]

@TDotResident Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo need to find a way to sue the college for the very obviously foreseeable impacts their shenanigans had on the social services in the area

[Bill the Beaver 🇨🇦 @TrueNorthStr0ng]

Wearing shoes inside the house is psychotic. This is the way.

[Gil Meslin @g_meslin]

It shouldn’t be possible to lose a court decision and then afterwards change the law to retroactively render your actions legal. It means that in matters of provincial jurisdiction there effectively is no binding law for those that govern us.

[Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions @mynamesnotgordy]

Deer My Friends

My goverments bin so busy pertecting Ontario we axidentally bought a privutt jet but I like to just jump in my truck and go talk with folks so I desided I don't need a jet and now that we got caught with it we will sell it cheep for parts like Ontario.

Premair

[TDot Resident @TDotResident]

This #GravyPlane story gets more and more ridiculous

[Matt @matycake]

@TDotResident One that require pedaling for the motor to actually assist, no. One that you can just control with a throttle, absolutely. Especially if it literally just looks like an actual moped, I mean c'mon

[Gil Meslin @g_meslin]

Maybe next time remember that when a party that has been in power with a majority for seven years calls an early election, it’s so that they can cement a term to do really unpopular things with impunity before their time finally runs out.

[Neil Pasricha @NeilPasricha]

Dear Prime Minister Mark Carney (@markjcarney),

I was on the Toronto Ferry last year staring at our majestic waterfront.

I saw paddlers, kayakers, dragon boaters, sailors, windsurfers, fishers, paddleboarders, water taxis, and cruisers all sharing the space in harmony.

When we docked at Hanlan’s Point on the Toronto Islands I was surrounded by hikers, joggers, cyclists, birders, picnickers, swimmers, photographers, beachgoers, frisbee golfers, naturalists, and thousands of tourists and locals enjoying this lush ecological paradise surrounded by our sparkling freshwater lake.

Please don’t destroy this by paving Lake Ontario.

Three weeks ago Ontario Premier Doug Ford (@fordnation) announced he will "seize" Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport (YTZ) in order to expand runways into Lake Ontario (1), bring in jets against the legal contracts governing the airport (2), and nix 14,000 mixed-use homes slated to go up on the shore (which taxpayers have already spent $1.4B developing). (3,4)

Although this decision is not his to make — Billy Bishop is governed by the City of Toronto and the federal government (5) — Premier Ford says he will overrule the City to "bring in jets one way or another." (6,7)

Premier Ford says he has the "full support" of your federal government to do this. (8)

Prime Minister Carney:

It is not too late.

Please say no to expanding Billy Bishop airport into the lake.

We don’t need this, we don’t want this, and we can’t afford this.

We don’t need this.

We can already go anywhere we want to go.

I live right in downtown Toronto.

I can be anywhere I want in the world, tomorrow.

I can walk to bus, subway, streetcar, and UP express stations from my house and I fly 40x per year.

In the past year I have been to over 35 airports on 3 continents and YYZ is one of the absolute best. In fact, in the past month it has won "Best Airport Staff in North America" (9), been ranked 4th in all of the Americas in efficiency (out of 50 airports) (10), and won Best Large Airport on the entire continent (an award it's won eight times in nine years.) (11)

Right this second, checking Uber, I can get from my house by car to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport (YYZ) in 21 mins and to Toronto’s Billy Bishop Island Airport (YTZ) in 14 mins.

Right this second, if someone at Union Station wanted to get to YYZ on public transit it would take 28 minutes (UP Express) and to YTZ would take 22 minutes (TTC streetcar).

We are talking about a 6 minute time savings here.

If we want to serve southwestern Ontario’s population with expanded jet service we simply need to use the 7000m of existing, high-capacity, under-utilized jet runways within 2 hours of Toronto at Hamilton (@flyYHM ), Waterloo (@flyYKF), and London (@flyYXU) versus entertaining a "special economic zone" to force a jet-strip into the most environmentally sensitive and densely populated waterfront in the country.

We don’t want this.

This tiny speck of ecological paradise provides critical respite from our dense and urban concrete jungle and is vital for mental health, community, and happiness.

Over 400 peer-reviewed studies show urban forests and parks mitigate depression and anxiety and enhance overall mental well-being. (12)

I know you agree because four days ago on March 31, 2026 you announced your "Force of Nature" strategy with the vision of "protecting, restoring, and valuing nature." This wonderful program declares a federal investment of $3.8 billion dollars into "protecting critical habitats and aligning industrial strategies with biodiversity conservation." (13, 14, 15)

Also, I looked into the runway expansion into the lake that Premier Ford has promised.

Right now the shortest jet runway in Canada is 1832m (YHM Hamilton, ON) and the shortest jet runway in the world is 1508m (LCY London City Airport, UK). There are also new Canadian Aviation Regulations (RESA) stating all runways need to add 150m on each end for safety. (16, 17, 18)

Today the Billy Bishop runway is 1216m. (19)

Even the most conservative assumption — building the shortest jet runway in the entire world! — still requires a minimum of 600m more runway to land jets.

Here is a current aerial view of Billy Bishop Airport. (Photo 1 / attached)

Here is an aerial view of Billy Bishop Airport with the smallest possible runway extension of 600m added. (Photo 2 / attached)

(Of course this photo doesn’t include additional parking, hangers, gates, aprons, tarmacs, fueling stations, de-icing stations, blast fences, control towers, baggage carousels, taxi pickups … )

We can’t afford this.

Premier Ford was first elected in 2018 as the right wing candidate (PC) with 40.5% of the vote (left wing side of NDP and Liberal was 53.2%) and campaigned as a fiscal conservative. (FN) He attacked the Liberals for their $6.7B deficit and vowed a "return to balanced budgets" that would "begin in 2019." (20, 21)

Since then Premier Ford has won two more elections — with a nearly identical right / left vote split and record lows in voter turnout — and has now presided over 8 budgets. (22, 23)

In order from 2019 to 2026 those eight budgets have been for *deficits* of $8.7B, $16.4B, $13.5B, $5.9B, $5.6, $1.1B, $12.3B, and, most recently, just announced last week on March 26, 2026, coming in at a 77% increase on his own 2025 forecasts, $13.8B. (24, 25)

Since Premier Ford was elected he has *increased* Ontario’s debt from $338B to $485B. Ontario now pays $17.2B a year … just in interest payments. (26, 27, 28)

Notably, Premier Ford’s most recent $13.8B deficit budget does not include any money for the projected $1-2B cost of expanding Billy Bishop airport.

(Prime Minister, you and Premier Ford are both 61 and have a seemingly warm relationship despite wildly different education and business paths. (29, 30, 31, 32) Might you have time for some evening finance tutorials?)

Prime Minister Carney:

We don’t need this, we don’t want this, we can’t afford this.

Please say no to this expansion plan.

Please allow the legal agreements governing the airport to remain in the hands of those who legally own it — the City of Toronto and the federal government — and not with Premier Ford’s provincial government who is attempting to autocratically rule something in which it has no stake.

At the Junos six days ago on March 29, 2026 you praised 82-year-old @jonimitchell and justifiably called her "one of the greatest artists of all time." (33)

Joni warned us about "paving paradise to put up a parking lot" and now that’s exactly what Premier Ford is proposing we do.

The Toronto Harbour, Toronto Harbourfront, and Toronto Islands are a crown jewel for the functioning of our great city, our great province, and our great country.

Would New York City pave over Central Park?

Would Paris put runways on the Seine?

We absolutely should not pave the paradise of Lake Ontario to put up runways and parking lots we don’t need, don’t want, and can’t afford.

It's not too late.

Please say no.

Thank you,

Neil Pasricha

//

(1) https://t.co/lgQ5WdNcwV
https://t.co/A74NIBBFil
(2) https://t.co/B3ujtqHAxs
(3) https://t.co/Heig4pdd1T
(4) https://t.co/iQuAopsifd
(5) https://t.co/Daj6zWY9mC
(6) https://t.co/AgBbiwy2R9
(7) https://t.co/QFNa94c4sn
https://t.co/3O9To68MN1
https://t.co/QFNa94c4sn
(8) https://t.co/3O9To68MN1
(9) https://t.co/I3kBjq6thM
(10) https://t.co/kgRl5vJV8W
(11) https://t.co/8stbfkcmcm
(12) https://t.co/VJiYAGJ9JJ
(13) https://t.co/7ZiPrHlVxa
(14) https://t.co/dqg5ldemUZ
(15) https://t.co/ytJ0iv8ymB
(16) https://t.co/jwQm4JzTUN
(17) https://t.co/LMheI43DKb
https://t.co/8YX8IF1gqi
(18) https://t.co/Ci7qMEMpMw
(19) https://t.co/KmhPvr48Ir
(20) https://t.co/PCk3ah5cR0
(21) https://t.co/ZuviVaCKVF
(22) https://t.co/xSk5kvX4Ym
(23) https://t.co/DwJHjj05BY
(24) https://t.co/JVmlSC4Y1z
(25) https://t.co/NXBsJyGS8g
(26) https://t.co/e2kIIzuMsy
(27) https://t.co/jKAUVglOoB
(28) https://t.co/08PLVXXUJI
(29) https://t.co/doLO2tbShf
(30) https://t.co/r98N6I0ahT
(31) https://t.co/LcMIgaigwB
(32) https://t.co/y0wFa9L42e
(33) https://t.co/HvMafmRLtK
//

CC: Minister of Transport @SteveMcKinnon, Minister of Environment @JulieDabrusin, Mayor of Toronto @OliviaChow, MP @RunChiNguyenRun, MP @J_Maloney, MP @JulieDzerowicz, MP @Coteau, MP @Rob_Oliphant, MP @Vgasparro, MP @Yvan_Baker, MP @Jzerucelli, Ontario Minister of Transportation @PrabSarkaria, Ontario Minister of Infrastructure @KingaSurmaMPP, @PortsToronto, MPP @MaritStiles, MPP @JessicaBellTO, MPP @ChrisGlover, Councillor @BravoDavenport, Councillor @DianneSaxxe, Candidate @Massey_Toronto, @Nieuport, @JenniferQuinnTO, @Envirodefense, @BirdsCanada, @NoJetsTo, @CycleTO, @TheGlobeAndMail, @TorontoStar, @CBCToronto, @TheCurrentCBC, @BlogTO

[Matt @matycake]

@BenRabidoux @danielfoch @JShamess @ronmortgageguy Plus, $1.3M with HST would be $1.17M with the rebate at best. Not exactly making a real difference for first-time buyers who likely wouldn't even entertain either pricepoint. If 10% off a $1.3M house is the difference maker, you probably shouldn't buy that house at all.
(3/3)

[Matt @matycake]

@BenRabidoux @danielfoch @JShamess @ronmortgageguy ... only one developer needs to 1:1 reduce prices by the saved DC amount to undercut EVERYONE and basically sell out everything they've got in a weekend (not literally, but compared to the real situation on the ground). So I suspect it's a minority of builders.
(2/2, w opt 3)

[Matt @matycake]

@Coins_in_Canada @ronmortgageguy Because 2022 happened. And everyone that owns real estate (including government officials) can't get that taste out of their mouths. Reality is that those prices are not coming back, even though them coming back is the hope that these 'temporary' breaks are based upon.

[Matt @matycake]

@kbessey @Graff2023 @ronmortgageguy You beat me to it.

"Free" upzoning could easily cost $1M for a pretty average project. And that doesn't include land and holding costs.