Doug Ford stands by Steve Clark despite report the minister violated integrity act in Greenbelt land swap

Ontario’s Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark violated the Members’ Integrity Act by “by failing to oversee the process by which lands in the Greenbelt were selected for development.”

Thestar.com
Aug. 31, 2023
Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson

Embattled Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark violated the Members’ Integrity Act by “failing to oversee the process by which lands in the Greenbelt were selected for development,” Ontario’s ethics watchdog has ruled.

A defiant Doug Ford is refusing to fire him -- but, in a damage control effort after integrity commissioner J. David Wake’s blistering report Wednesday, the premier announced some land in Ajax would be returned to the Greenbelt.

That surprise move came as Wake concluded Clark contravened MPPs’ ethics legislation by allowing his chief of staff to personally select 14 of the 15 plots of land removed from Greenbelt protection.

“Minister Clark will continue to work toward delivering on our promise to build at least 1.5 million homes and ensure public trust and confidence is maintained every step of the way,” the premier’s office said in a statement.

Still, it’s another major setback for a Progressive Conservative government mired in Greenbelt controversies.

The minister’s top aide, Ryan Amato, resigned Aug. 22.

Clark acknowledged “as minister, the buck stops with me and I accept the integrity commissioner’s findings.”

“There were clear flaws in the process that led to today’s report. I am fully committed to fulfilling our government’s promise to build at least 1.5 million homes and will ensure the process is done with integrity and trust,” he said.

However, Wake’s report found Clark “has not expressed any remorse for his own role in this affair.”

The minister “misinterpreted the (ministerial) mandate letter in relation to the Greenbelt particularly with respect to what was expected and by when, which led Mr. Amato to embark on a rushed and flawed process.”

That meant prominent developers getting 7,400 acres of environmentally sensitive land in the two-million-acre Greenbelt that surrounds the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area opened up to build 50,000 homes.

It could result in an $8.28-billion bonanza for the landowners.
“The evidence paints a picture of a process marked by misinterpretation, unnecessary hastiness and deception. It shows that Mr. Amato advised Minister Clark to ‘leave it with me’ as he embarked on a chaotic and almost reckless process that I find led to an uninformed and opaque decision which resulted in the creation of an opportunity to further the private interests of some developers improperly,” the integrity commissioner said of the “untrained and unsupervised” staffer.

“I find that Mr. Amato was the driving force behind a flawed process which provided an advantage to those who approached him. It was unfair to those landowners who had an interest in seeing their lands were removed and who were unaware of the potential change to the government’s Greenbelt policy,” he wrote.

Three weeks after auditor general Bonnie Lysyk’s 93-page Greenbelt review that also revealed favouritism, Wake recommended “Clark be reprimanded for his failure to comply with the act” -- a slap on the wrist that failed to sate the Tories’ opponents.

New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles, whose complaint sparked the investigation, said the minister must resign or be fired by the premier.

“At best what we see here is gross incompetence; at worst it’s corruption and colluding with developers,” Stiles said at Queen’s Park.

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said it is “abundantly clear that Steve Clark is unable to conduct his ministerial duties in good faith or in the interest of Ontario families.”

Indeed, Wake found that “Clark’s lack of oversight led to some developers being alerted to a potential change in the government’s position on the Greenbelt, resulting in their private interests being furthered improperly.”

In a bid to stanch the bleeding, the premier hopes to return to the Greenbelt 104 acres at 775 Kingston Rd. E. in Ajax over concerns the China-based owner is trying to flip the land.

But the landowner’s representative insisted it was listed to find “a joint-venture partner with the experience necessary to help us develop the property.”

Ford’s intervention came after the Star began looking into the sale. Property records show a numbered company bought the then Greenbelt land for $15.8 million on June 18, 2018 -- less than two weeks after Ford’s Tories were elected.

The premier, who will meet with reporters Thursday in Etobicoke, was blindsided by the apparent land-flip bid and warned other property owners must tell Queen’s Park of any pending sales.

Wake’s report followed Lysyk’s conclusion that the process was “biased” and “favoured certain developers.”

The auditor had concluded that at a builders’ gala dinner last September in Woodbridge, “two prominent housing developers approached (Amato) and gave him packages containing information to remove two land sites from the Greenbelt.”

Those parcels -- the Duffins Rouge agricultural preserve site in Durham Region, which includes a proposed 4,200-acre development called Cherrywood, and the Bathurst-King site in York Region -- are associated with well-known landowners Silvio De Gasperis and Michael Rice.

The integrity commissioner interviewed 62 witnesses -- including Ford, Clark, Amato and other aides, as well as De Gasperis and Rice and PC Ontario Fund chair Tony Miele -- and reviewed more than 2,300 documents.

De Gasperis told Wake “he was aware ahead of time that he would be seated with Mr. Amato” at the Building Industry and Land Development gala and prepared an information package for him.

“At the dinner, Mr. De Gasperis said that he pulled Mr. Amato aside and said, ‘I have a package I want you to take a look at -- there was an injustice done at Cherrywood ...’ ”

Amato told Wake he never thought his bosses would act on a mere staffer’s recommendations, saying he told Ford, Clark and the premier’s chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, that “the way our system of government is set up, cabinet makes decisions.”

He “explained ‘we govern by recommendations to cabinet and cabinet approves, so I imagine there have been things that the premier has wanted to do that the cabinet has not been able to get through, so we do have rules and laws that we have to follow.’”

Wake wrote that “Premier Ford, Minister Clark and Mr. Sackville have no recollection of this meeting.”

The ethics czar also expressed concern about potential “unregistered lobbying” by citing evidence involving a man he dubbed “Mr. X,” an unidentified consultant who was not interviewed for the report.

Mr. X is apparently a retired municipal politician and veteran Conservative, who wanted to entertain political staffers over golf, lunches, and a Toronto Raptors game in a luxury suite at Scotiabank Place.

The report was released one week after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took over a review of the Greenbelt “irregularities” at the request of the Ontario Provincial Police.

Wake also explored the relationship between the premier and some developers.

“Premier Ford acknowledged he has met Mr. De Gasperis, but advised he had no discussions with him ‘in respect to any property in the Greenbelt or which may have been removed or redesignated within the Greenbelt in 2022,’” the integrity commissioner noted.

While Wake said Ford’s aides told him the premier was “very interested in learning the locations of the properties proposed for removal ... (the) ownership of the properties was not discussed.

“With respect to locations of the properties, Premier Ford was interested in details such as proximity to transit and what that would mean for options for affordable housing,” he wrote.