Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives ‘favoured certain developers’ in controversial Greenbelt plan, auditor general finds in scathing report

In a 93-page report to the legislature, Bonnie Lysyk said the Tories did not need the 15 parcels of land to achieve their promised target of building 1.5-million homes over the next decade.

Thestar.com
Aug. 10, 2023
Rob Ferguson, Robert Benzie

Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives “favoured certain developers” in a controversial $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap rammed through in a fashion the premier admits was “wrong,” the auditor general found.

In a searing 93-page report to the legislature Wednesday, Bonnie Lysyk concluded Ford’s opening up of 7,400 acres of environmentally protected land last fall “cannot be described as a standard or defensible process.”

That process was run by Ryan Amato, the chief of staff to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark, without proper input from independent bureaucrats or land-use experts, she said.

But the premier and Clark, who took media questions for more than an hour, vowed to continue with the land swap -- which will benefit Tory-connected landowners -- despite the auditor general’s push for them to reconsider.

“The buck stops with me and I take full responsibility for the need for better process,” said Ford, adding no heads would roll for the debacle and that “absolutely” no one in his government personally benefited from the decision.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles, who decried the “corruption,” and interim Liberal leader John Fraser, who warned of “the stench of insider trading,” called on the premier to sack the embattled minister.

An unrepentant Clark said the Greenbelt had to be opened up in order for the province to meet its promised target of building 1.5-million homes over the next decade to alleviate Ontario’s housing crisis.

Lysyk disputed that, saying the Tories did not need the 15 parcels of land to achieve their goal.

While the auditor general met with the Ontario Provincial Police, she stopped short of calling for a criminal probe, noting “whatever happens in the future will be up to the OPP to decide.”

In response, the police said “at this time, there is no change in status in terms of the ongoing review of the matter by the OPP Anti-Rackets Branch.”

Lysyk wrote in her report that she “found that how the land sites were selected was not transparent, fair, objective or fully informed.”

The financial watchdog zeroed in on the role of Amato, who was vacationing in Italy on Wednesday and couldn’t be reached for comment, in selecting the plots of Greenbelt land opened up for development.

“Direct access to the housing minister’s chief of staff resulted in certain prominent developers receiving preferential treatment,” she wrote, pointing to a dinner Amato attended with landowners last Sept. 14.

That’s a reference to the Building Industry and Land Development Association’s (BILD) Chair’s Dinner, a $250-a-plate event at the Paramount Eventspace in Woodbridge.

“Altogether, those who had access to the chief of staff at the September BILD event ended up with land removals that accounted for 6,784 acres, or 92 per cent of the 7,412.64 acres ultimately removed from the Greenbelt in December 2022,” Lysyk wrote.

Regarding the BILD gala, Amato told Lysyk that “two prominent housing developers approached him and gave him packages containing information to remove two land sites from the Greenbelt.”

The two land sites are associated with Tory-connected developers Silvio De Gasperis and Michael Rice.

They were the Duffins Rouge agricultural preserve site in Durham Region and the Bathurst-King site in York Region.

“The chief of staff sat at the same dinner table with one of these two developers,” the auditor added.

But Amato assured Lysyk that “whenever he received any packages, he did not immediately open them and review their contents.”

“He said that, instead, he kept them in a stack in his office, adding new packages to the stack as he received them from developers and their representatives,” she said.

“He also noted that he did not tell the developers and landowners that the government was considering removing land from the Greenbelt, but would consider the requests if it decided to do so.”

Last Oct. 6, Amato “provided hard copy information from packages he received on eight sites to the Greenbelt project team” studying proposed boundary changes.

Ontario auditor general report Aug. 9 by Toronto Star on Scribd

“The Greenbelt exercise calls into question who, if anyone, was supervising a non-elected chief of staff. In our view, the housing minister ought to have known,” Lysyk told reporters.

Rice and De Gasperis, who did not immediately respond to questions about the report on Wednesday afternoon, went to court to block or delay Lysyk’s order to be interviewed under oath and hand over pertinent documents.

Each argued they were private citizens and that the provincial auditor was overstepping her authority -- a view shared by the premier.

Lysyk also detailed a furious lobbying effort by landowners as they scrambled to get their land included in the weeks leading up to Ford and Clark’s surprise policy U-turn.

“We found that 12 of the 15 parcels of land chosen for removal from the Greenbelt had been, as noted by the housing minister’s chief of staff, requested for removal by developers or their representatives,” she wrote.

“Many of these individuals had advocated for the removal in emails and in-person meetings within a few months prior to their removal.”

Since then-premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government created the Greenbelt in 2005, various landowners have requested about 500 properties be removed, but “only 22 land sites were considered in the 2022 selection exercise.”

“Of those, only one was proposed by the housing ministry’s non-political public service staff, while 21 were provided directly by the housing minister’s chief of staff,” wrote Lysyk.

“Of the 15 land sites ultimately approved for removal. 14 were brought into the exercise by the housing minister’s chief of staff and one was identified by the housing ministry’s non-political public service staff.”

The premier said no speculators were tipped off to the November boundary amendments, which affect the 15 parcels of land in King, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Markham, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Clarington and Hamilton.

But the Star and the Narwhal have reported eight of those 15 affected plots were purchased after Ford’s Tories took power in 2018.

Lysyk’s probe comes in parallel to an ongoing investigation into the Greenbelt deals by Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake, the province’s ethics watchdog.

The auditor general recommended that Wake determine whether Amato acted contrary to the Public Service of Ontario Act “with respect to his liaisons with land developers.”

Her report also called on the government to “re-evaluate” the decision to change the Greenbelt boundaries because Ford and Clark maintain they had no idea the process for choosing the lands was questionable.

“The premier and the minister of housing have communicated to us that they were unaware that the pre-selection of lands for removed from the Greenbelt was biased, controlled and directed by the housing minister’s chief of staff (a political public servant) rather than informed by environmental, agricultural and infrastructure considerations,” she wrote.

That sounded “somewhat implausible or dubious” to the NDP’s Stiles.

The Liberals’ Fraser agreed, saying “it’s not plausible” that Ford and Clark were in the dark.

Lysyk also highlighted the environmental impact of Ford’s moves, noting the Ministry of Agriculture said about 76 per cent of the 7,400 acres affected was active farmland last year.

That’s significant because only about five per cent of the entire province can be used for farming.

“About 83 per cent of the area removed is classified as Class 1-3 prime agricultural lands, which is of the highest quality and capability for agriculture,” she noted, adding “almost 1,000 acres of wetlands and woodlands” were exposed by the changes.

“Without the protection provided by the Greenbelt Plan, these natural features are at increased risk of being paved over, drained or polluted (which) can increase flooding, impair water quality, contribute to climate change and reduce biodiversity.”

According to the federal Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, there are 29 species at risk living or likely to live in that parcel.

As well, development of Pickering’s Duffins Rouge agricultural preserve “is expected to increase flood risk within the area and for downstream lands already prone to flooding.”

That means existing and proposed homes closer to Lake Ontario could also be affected.

“Provincial government actions failed to consider environmental, agricultural and financial risks and impacts, proceeded with little input from experts or affected parties, and favoured certain developers/landowners,” said Lysyk.

Her auditors asked the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), which calculates property values in Ontario, for an estimate on the change in value of the land eliminated from the Greenbelt.

“MPAC estimated that removing the 15 land sites from the Greenbelt has the potential to increase their value by $8.28 billion,” she wrote.

De Gasperis’s Duffins Rouge site alone “potentially” increased in value by $6.63 billion.

Ford has pointed out that as part of allowing development of 7,400 acres of the two-million-acre Greenbelt, he added 9,400 acres elsewhere to the massive swath of environmentally sensitive lands.

However, Lysyk found 7,000 of those 9,400 acres were “already protected under other means.”