Ford asks Integrity Commissioner to investigate Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff over Greenbelt report

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his office have asked the Integrity Commissioner to investigate the Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff in light of the auditor general’s scathing report on the decision to remove land from the Greenbelt.

The Integrity Commissioner confirmed the request to investigate whether the Chief of Staff acted “contrary to the requirements of the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006, which includes the Conflict of Interest Rules for Public Servants (Ministers’ Offices).”

Bonnie Lysyk’s report found the process to choose the sites favoured developers that had ties to the Chief of Staff for Housing Minister Steve Clark.

The Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff was appointed by the Premier’s Chief of Staff in July 2022. He was “given the responsibility by the Premier’s Office to direct a project to change the Green­belt’s boundary.” The entire process to unlock portions of the Greenbelt was conducted in three weeks.

In her report, the auditor general said 4,900 (67 per cent) of the approximately 7,400 acres removed from the Greenbelt are on two sites, whereby information was given by two developers to the Housing Minister Chief of Staff last September at an industry event.

The report also stated that the Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff provided all but one of the sites that were ultimately removed from the Greenbelt, “at least nine of which came from requests made by a few select developers and their representatives, who contacted him personally.”

Housing Minister Steve Clark said he learned of the process and sites chosen just a week prior to its introduction to Ford’s cabinet, but Lysyk said the Housing Minister should have known.

“Given the high level of public interest that any change to the Greenbelt’s boundary was expected to carry, the Housing Minister ought to have known the process used that would lead to the removal of land from the Greenbelt and ensure that Cabinet and the Premier were also made aware of these details,” read the report.

Ford admitted Wednesday the process could’ve been better in the selection of the 15 sites that will be removed from the Greenbelt for development and he takes full responsibility, but the process would continue in order to build more housing for the province.

Despite the report saying the province could meet its target of building 1.5 million homes in the next decade without the Greenbelt land, Ford and Clark insisted the land was needed to help alleviate the housing crisis.

The Integrity Commissioner says the request from the Premier’s office is currently under review.

With files from Cynthia Mulligan