Doug Ford criticizes auditor general over Greenbelt investigation: ‘It’s not even within her scope’

Thestar.com
July 17, 2023

A defensive Premier Doug Ford insists “we have nothing to hide” even as he questioned the auditor general’s probe of his controversial Greenbelt land swap.

“It’s not even within her scope,” Ford said Thursday of Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk.

“She has to look for value for money,” the premier said in Hamilton.

“Everyone in our office is co-operating with the integrity commissioner and with the auditor general. Folks, we have nothing to hide,” he said.

“The difference between the integrity commissioner (is) that (he) puts his scope out there versus the auditor general that (this) isn’t even in her realm -- that’s the difference. I encourage everyone to co-operate.”

Ford’s comments came after it emerged that two developers who benefited from his Greenbelt land swap have gone to court to fight Lysyk’s summons to interview them for her investigation.

Michael Rice and Silvio De Gasperis have separately filed court applications to block or delay her order to be interviewed under oath and hand over pertinent documents.

In January, Lysyk launched a “value-for-money” audit into the Progressive Conservative government’s decision to open up 7,400 acres of the Greenbelt for housing development. In exchange, 9,400 acres has been added elsewhere to the two-million acre swath of sensitive lands.

At the same time, integrity commissioner J. David Wake -- whose mandate is to “encourage high standards of ethical conduct for” MPPs -- launched a probe after a complaint from NDP Leader Marit Stiles.

The parallel investigations came after the Star and the Narwhal revealed eight of the 15 areas being removed from the Greenbelt had been purchased after Ford took power in 2018.

“I don’t interfere in the private sector,” said the premier, who has always insisted no developers were tipped off to his surprise Greenbelt changes.

Pointing out that “our government has expanded the Greenbelt by 2,000 acres,” Ford signalled his frustration.

“Let me remind everyone once again, the previous government that made up this name (Greenbelt) -- it was a political name (created by) the Liberals -- guess what … they changed (the boundaries) 17 times,” he fumed.

“What does that tell you? That tells me (they were) a bunch of hypocrites … that’s what that tells me.”

That’s a reference to the fact that between the Greenbelt’s creation in 2005 and 2017, premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty made 17 small changes totalling around 340 acres.

Ford’s outburst came after the developers have gone to court to fight Lysyk’s efforts.

Rice -- whose company bought two parcels of protected land in King Township for $80 million just weeks before the properties were among those opened up for development -- filed a notice of application last week.

It maintains that her summons overreached her authority and mandate as a watchdog over the provincial government’s finances.

“The auditor general’s role is not to investigate, audit, and/or examine private citizens under oath, or go on fishing expeditions with respect to their private corporate affairs,” Rice said in the application.

Lysyk had asked Rice to her office in April to discuss “an audit looking at the recent changes to the Greenbelt and their economic implication, including their effect on Ontario’s housing goals,” the filing says.

Rice and his companies are among the nine developers who benefited from the land swap that Elections Ontario records show donated money to Ford’s Conservatives.

De Gasperis’s company, TACC Developments, bought 100 acres of farmland north of Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan in May 2021 for $50 million.

At the time, a large part of the property was within the Greenbelt and housing development wouldn’t have been permitted.

Neil Wilson, a lawyer for TACC, said the company is “not the best source of information on these broad subject matters.”

“At this point, the scope and goal of the auditor general’s investigation are unclear. If it is a value for money audit, we cannot understand how it could be achieved at this stage, primarily because the costs of development to the developers are unknown,” said Wilson.