Doug Ford has made a rapid retreat from his controversial scheme to open up the Greenbelt’s protected land to housing development.

The Progressive Conservative leader backed down one day after it emerged he had privately assured property developers he would “open a big chunk” of the 800,000-hectare swath of environmentally sensitive land around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area if the Tories win the June 7 election.

“The people have spoken — we won’t touch the Greenbelt. Very simple. That’s it, the people have spoken. I’m going to listen to them, they don’t want me to touch the Greenbelt. We won’t touch the Greenbelt. Simple as that,” Ford said Tuesday afternoon.

“There have been a lot of voices saying that they don’t want to touch the Greenbelt. I govern through the people; I don’t govern through government.”

The rookie PC leader, who took the reins of the party on March 10, said the forthcoming PC election platform would “increase the supply of affordable housing across the GTA while protecting the Greenbelt in its entirety.”

Ford’s policy U-turn came as PC candidates confided they were taking heat from voters over his Feb. 12 video, unveiled by the Liberals on Monday, where he dismissed the Greenbelt as “just farmer fields.”

“It’s right beside a community. We need to open that up and create a larger supply,” Ford said at the time.

“I’ve already talked to some of the biggest developers in the country, and, again, I wish I could say it’s my idea, but it was their idea as well.”

On Monday, Ford stood by his February comments.

Earlier Tuesday, Premier Kathleen Wynne warned his proposal would promote urban sprawl and damage the environment.

“When that land is gone, it’s gone forever. You cannot get that land back,” Wynne said at the Charles Hastings housing co-op on Elm Street where she was touting tenant protections.

“The point of the Greenbelt is to keep in place the integrity of water systems, the integrity of agricultural land. Making the map look like Swiss cheese … makes it much less viable and really undermines those water protections and agricultural land protections.”

Wynne noted there is already enough available “land in the GTHA to build two more cities the size of Mississauga” without tampering with the Greenbelt.

Marcy Burchfield, executive director of the Neptis Foundation, which has been studying anti-sprawl growth plan, said there are already almost 45,000 hectares of land around the GTHA ready to be developed.

“Our research shows that it’s totally unnecessary to go into the Greenbelt,” said Burchfield, noting the land is protected by provincial legislation that is not due for review until 2027.

“Opening up that whole Greenbelt Act … definitely wouldn’t be an easy thing to do. The idea is that you don’t open it up every year,” she said.

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Reaction to the revelation of Ford’s plan had been swift.

The Town of Oakville council voted unanimously Monday night to work with neighbouring municipalities to maintain the current Greenbelt, which includes massive parts of Halton Region.

“Sprawling development creates traffic jams and tax increases. He’s saying he’ll be moving the sprawl line outwards. Sad,” Oakville Mayor Rob Burton said in Twitter.

PC candidates in and around the GTHA had privately confided that the gaffe was hurting them with some voters.

“Everyone was wondering where this came from,” said one incredulous Tory candidate, speaking on background in order to discuss internal matters.

Another said the new leader’s derisive reference to “just farmer fields” was causing problems with some voters in rural Ontario

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath panned Ford, who leads in every public opinion poll.

“There is no reason whatsoever to even contemplate paving over the Greenbelt unless you’re trying to make a good buck for your friends in the development industry,” Horwath said in campaign swing in the Toronto riding of Davenport.

“Paving over farms and wetlands and green spaces is absolutely not good public policy,” she said.

The Greenbelt was enshrined in law by former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty in a bid to limit urban sprawl and conserve ecologically sensitive land.

With files from Rob Ferguson

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