Ontario government's Greenbelt land swap influenced by well-connected developers, AG finds

In a widely-anticipated 95-page report released Wednesday, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk offered a damning assessment of how the province selected sites last year for removal from the Greenbelt — a vast 810,000-hectare area of farmland, forest and wetland stretching from Niagara Falls to Peterborough that was meant to be off limits to development.

The revelations prompted the two main opposition parties — the NDP and the Liberals — to call for the housing minister's resignation. Ford said his government would accept and implement 14 of 15 total recommendations Lysyk made in her report. The single recommendation it will not accept is to revisit the land swaps and possibly reverse those decisions, he said.

Lysyk agreed to look into this decision in January at the request of all three opposition leaders, who questioned whether developers knew about it in advance. The audit revealed that Clark's chief of staff directed a small team of housing ministry bureaucrats in October 2022 that decided which sites would be removed. The work of the so-called "Greenbelt Project Team" was limited to three weeks and its members were sworn to confidentiality, according to the report.

"Many of these individuals had advocated for the removal in emails and in-person meetings within a few months prior to their removal," according to the report. "For example, one lawyer representing three housing developers emailed the chief of staff on Sept. 27 and 29, 2022, providing site specific details for the land they sought to develop."

Lysyk said the chief of staff's behaviour may have contravened political activity and conflict of interest rules. Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles asked Ontario's auditor general to investigate how much property owners 'stand to benefit' from the Ford government opening up previously protected Greenbelt lands last November.

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