Most land that lost protections belongs to developers who gave suggestions directly to housing minister’s chief of staff
A high-ranking political staffer in Premier Doug Ford’s government “substantially controlled and directed” the process of removing protected areas from Ontario’s Greenbelt, giving “preferential treatment” to a group of developers, says a new provincial audit.
The explosive revelations were among the key findings of auditor general Bonnie Lysyk’s final report before her term ends in September. The Ford government announced in November 2022 it was dropping environmental protections in a huge swath of the Greenbelt, where it would allow residential development as part of a plan to address the housing affordability crisis. Lysyk’s office is one of several bodies that has been investigating the decision on the request of opposition leaders and members of the public.
Lysyk’s audit — done with the co-operation of the offices of Ford and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark — revealed how Clark’s chief of staff played a significant role in the decision-making process.
“Direct access to the housing minister’s chief of staff resulted in certain prominent developers receiving preferential treatment,” Lysyk wrote in the audit. She also spoke to a deputy minister in the housing office who “believed” the chief of staff “was working under the authority of the housing minister and the premier’s office.”
Lysyk found that 92 per cent of the 3,000 hectares (about 7,400 acres) opened were parcels directly pointed out to the staffer by two prominent developers — the same two who went to court to fight her summons to participate in the audit, Michael Rice and Silvio De Gasperis. Ultimately, Lysyk was not able to question them prior to finalizing her report.
While the two developers are not named in the report, Lysyk confirmed in a press conference after its release that De Gasperis and Rice were who she was referencing when noting that developers that own the majority of protected lands opened are set to collectively see a property value increase of nearly $8.3 billion. This comes at great environmental cost, the report says: the Greenbelt changes will result in the loss of 1,000 acres of wetlands and woodlands and threaten at least 29 species at risk.
“Without the protection provided by the Greenbelt Plan, these natural features are at increased risk of being paved over, drained, cut down or polluted,” Lysyk writes.
Source: Developers influenced Greenbelt opening: auditor general report | The Narwhal
