Investigation Finds Ontario Government Favored Developers with Ties to Housing Minister in Greenbelt Decision

TORONTO – The province’s decision to open up the protected Greenbelt to housing construction favoured “certain developers” with ties to the housing minister, and failed to consider the potential consequences of the move, an investigation by the auditor general has found.

One of the groups that benefited from the process was TACC Developments, which is owned by the De Gasparis family. Silvio De Gasparis, who was not named in the auditor general’s report, has close ties to Premier Doug Ford. Another developer was Michael Rice, owner of the Rice Group. Lysyk said “the exercise to change the Greenbelt boundaries in fall 2022 cannot be described as a standard or defensible process.”

Ford said he only learned of the land swap the day it went to cabinet for approval, while Housing Minister Steve Clark said he learned of it the week prior. Both have previously said they did not tip off developers about the moves beforehand and denied having benefited personally from any Greenbelt policy decisions.

“Let’s call this what it is: corruption. Ontarians deserve better than a government that enriches a select number of party donors at the expense of hard-working Ontarians,” Stiles said. “I recognize the changes that are recommended in this report and I acknowledged that we need to implement them as soon as possible,” Clark told reporters.

The Ford government has agreed to implement 14 of the recommendations, but rejected Lysyk’s advice to review the boundary decision.Among Lysyk’s other recommendations was a call for “records retention” specifically regarding emails, as some were missing when she looked for them. Personal emails were also used, she found.

Source: Real Estate Daily Report (realestatedailyreport.net)

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