Ontario’s integrity commissioner finds no wrongdoing in proposed rerouting of Bradford Bypass

Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney and Associate Minister Stan Cho had no involvement in the proposed route change, the commissioner found.

Thestar.com
Feb. 3, 2022
Sheila Wang

Ontario’s integrity commissioner has found no evidence of wrongdoing by Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney or Associate Minister Stan Cho in the government’s proposed rerouting of the planned Bradford Bypass.

The proposed route change of the controversial highway would send it around Cho’s father’s property in East Gwillimbury instead of cutting through it.

Integrity commissioner J. David Wake’s report was in response to a complaint filed by NDP MPP Taras Natyshak, who called for an investigation into Premier Doug Ford, Mulroney and Cho, alleging there was conflict of interest and undue influence over the Bradford Bypass.

The MPP’s complaint followed a joint investigation by Torstar and Canada’s National Observer last October, which found Associate Minister Cho’s father co-owns Silver Lakes Golf and Country Club in East Gwillimbury -- a property that would be spared under the recently proposed route change.

“On the information available to me I was satisfied that neither Minister Mulroney, Mr. Cho nor their staff had any involvement in directing the process which led to a proposed highway realignment avoiding the golf course,” the commissioner said in his 12-page report.

Wake had previously cleared Ford of any conflict of interest in the planning of the 16.2-km Bradford Bypass, which would connect Highways 404 and 400.

The Bradford Bypass, a key pledge in the Tories’ June 2 re-election campaign, would cross 27 waterways and cut through environmentally sensitive Holland Marsh lands, impacting about 39 hectares of wildlife habitat and 11 hectares of wetlands.

A senior ministry of transportation official told the commissioner that the route change was made by staff and consultants working in the ministry with no involvement from Mulroney and her staff.

Mulroney told the commissioner that she did not know of the change to the proposed route that would circumvent Cho’s father’s business and was never briefed on it until she informed herself for the purposes of responding to Natyshak’s complaint, according to the report.

“I find that there is not only insufficient evidence to support Mr. Natyshak’s allegations, but what evidence there is points very much in the opposite direction,” the commissioner said in his report.

Cho’s office had told Torstar/Observer that the MPP declared a conflict of interest upon his appointment, with a protocol in place blocking his access to information related to the bypass.

In a submission to the commissioner, Mulroney rejected Natyshak’s allegation that she may have allowed information relayed to her by Cho concerning the route of the bypass to influence the ministry of transportation’s decision to propose the route.

“I had no information from Associate Minister Cho, and I have done nothing to influence the route of the bypass, let alone to further my private interest or to improperly further another person’s private interest,” Mulroney is quoted as saying in the report.

Mulroney said she was aware that Cho’s father had an ownership interest in Silver Lakes but never discussed the matter with him because “she felt it would be inappropriate.”

A March 23, 2021 Facebook post by Silver Lakes Golf & Country Club celebrating a recent visit by Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney and PC MPP Stan Cho. Mulroney told the integrity commissioner that she attended in her capacity as MPP for York-Simcoe, and did not discuss anything related to the Bradford Bypass.

Mulroney confirmed Cho invited her to his father’s golf course in East Gwillimbury in March, weeks before the proposed route change was announced. She said she attended in her capacity as MPP for York-Simcoe, and did not discuss anything related to her role as Minister of Transportation or to the Bradford Bypass.

Cho, an MPP for Willowdale, joined her at Silver Lakes because he knew she would meet his parents and he wanted to be present “because I am so proud of them,” the report said.

“I am happy he has made clear what I have maintained now for months -- I was not involved in any decisions regarding the routing of the Bradford Bypass,” Cho tweeted in response to the commissioner’s report.

In his statement, he said his parents who built their lives in Canada from scratch have been subjected to racist attacks following the Star article about the rerouting of the bypass. He said he expects an apology from the NDP for jumping to conclusions.

In her tweet, Mulroney said, “We are moving full steam ahead with the Bradford Bypass and other critically needed transportation projects across the province.”

The Bradford Bypass, a key pledge in the Tories’ June 2 re-election campaign, would cross 27 waterways and cut through environmentally sensitive Holland Marsh lands, impacting about 39 hectares of wildlife habitat and 11 hectares of wetlands.