The Premier’s Office confirmed the resignation in a statement Tuesday, saying they have accepted Ryan Amato’s resignation “effective immediately.”
Amato was the staffer primarily responsible for choosing which sites on the Greenbelt would be opened up for development. On Aug. 10, Ontario’s integrity commissioner confirmed the Premier’s Office had requested an investigation into his handling of the file, which was one of 15 recommendations made in a scathing auditor general report released earlier this month.
The report, among other things, heavily criticized the process in which decisions regarding the Greenbelt were made, indicating that it “favoured certain developers,” lacked transparency and failed to take factors such as environmental, agricultural and financial impacts into consideration.