The Legislative Assembly in Ontario is set to resume its sessions tomorrow, Monday, following the resignation of two government ministers, a cabinet shuffle, and a significant shift in policy, which took place just last week.

Politicians will return to the Legislative Assembly after a 15-week summer break that saw damning reports from the Auditor General and the Integrity Commissioner regarding the process of removing lands from the Greenbelt for housing development.

The return of the legislature will see Premier Doug Ford reversing this decision, as announced last week, after nearly a year of public protests.

But don’t expect Ford to suddenly admit it was “a mistake” to open the Greenbelt to quell the controversy abruptly. Opposition politicians say many questions remain unanswered.

NDP leader Marit Stiles said on Friday, “I can assure you that we will take this opportunity to get more answers, because Ford and his Conservative government have a lot to answer for,” “We fully intend to keep holding them accountable.”

She added that there are still questions surrounding what developers knew before the official announcement to open the Greenbelt, what the Premier knew, what his staff knew, why the housing policy director resigned last week, and what emails were sent and deleted, as referenced by the Auditor General in the context of her investigations.

She stated, “There are endless questions, and I think the reason this is important is that it casts a long dark shadow over this government in everything it does.”

“We have privatization of health care, and we have the sale of a 95-year lease for Ontario Place, which people are really opposed to. I think it’s fair to say we need to shine a light on every corner.”

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said, “The tension is not going to ease anytime soon,” but it may take some time to get appropriate answers to the outstanding Greenbelt questions, as the Liberals will also present other priorities at the same time.

He said, “It is really important for us to focus on the things that matter to the people of Ontario, like housing, like health care, like education, like the environment.” “We have to keep doing that. I think we will be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. So we will find different ways to dig deeper.”

Green Party leader Mike Schreiner stated that he does not want to lose sight of the fact that there is still an affordable housing crisis, and he will push for finding solutions that do not involve prime agricultural land or enriching developers by up to $8.3 billion.

The Auditor General found that this is how much landowners who had their properties removed from the Greenbelt experienced an increase in their land values. It is unclear if any of them will pursue any form of appeal regarding the government's policy change.

Both the Auditor General and the Integrity Commissioner found that the land selection process was expedited and favored certain developers.

The Auditor noted that more than 90 percent of the removed lands were in five locations transferred to Ryan Amato, then Chief of Staff to former Housing Minister Steve Clark, by two developers who Amato met at an industry event. Both Clark and Amato have since resigned.

A second minister in the government, Khalid Rashid, resigned this week after news reports raised questions about his connections with developer Shakir Rahmatulla and a trip to Las Vegas.

On Friday, a third minister in the government resigned, though he said it was unrelated to the Greenbelt. Monte McNaughton resigned from his position as Minister of Labour to take a job in the private sector.

Stiles said that this reflects the turmoil facing Ford's government, “I’m starting to wonder if there will actually be anyone left to question on Monday at this rate.”

The resignations led to a mini cabinet shuffle on Friday, with Ford appointing David Piccini, who was Minister of the Environment for the past two years, as the new Minister of Labour. Andrea Khanjin, who represents the Barrie-Innisfil riding, was promoted to cabinet to serve as the new Minister of the Environment.

Tod McCarthy is the new Minister for Public and Business Services, having been appointed as an Assistant Minister of Transportation less than three weeks ago in another minor cabinet shuffle that led to Clark's resignation.

Vijay Thanigasalam, who represents Scarborough Rouge Park, was appointed as the new Assistant Minister of Transportation.

The opposing politicians will not be the only ones in the legislature on Monday armed with criticisms of the government. The Ontario Health Coalition said it will transport “thousands” of protesters to pressure Ford to abandon his plan to expand the delivery of public health care into the private sector.