The Ontario Green Party is in the process of submitting a formal request for an independent, public inquiry into the Doug Ford government’s handling of the Greenbelt development.
At a news conference held Thursday, Leader Mike Schreiner argued the matter was of “significant public interest” and that the auditor general’s report released earlier this month, which exposed a deeply-flawed decision-making structure lacking in transparency, has broader policy implications.
“People want transparency, they want accountability and they want to know the truth,” Schreiner said. “The only way we are going to get that level of accountability and that level of transparency is through an independent public inquiry.”
A public inquiry allows for a commission of professionals and experts to review facts, hear testimony and then provide a series of recommendations. The most notable current inquiry involves the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act during the Freedom Convoy protests.
Schreiner added that the decisions related to the Greenbelt impact a number of pieces of legislation and topics, including the Members Integrity Act, lobbying rules and regulations, political donations, and the way in which government decisions are made.
“It does meet the threshold (of a public inquiry),” he said.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk's report heavily criticized the process in which the Ford made decisions regarding the Greenbelt’s development. In it, she said the government “favoured certain developers” and that the process lacked transparency, failing to take factors such as environmental, agricultural and financial impacts into consideration.
Of the 7,400 acres of land removed from the Greenbelt, the report found that 92 per cent could be tied to three developers with direct access to the housing ministry.
These developers dined with Housing Minister Steve Clark’s chief of staff at a Sept. 14 Building and Land Development Association’s Chair’s dinner, where they handed him packages about two specific areas of the protected land.
The report found this chief of staff had directly proposed 14 of the 15 sites within a strict three-week timeline in which staffers were told to make these decisions.
Ryan Amato, the staffer at the centre of the report, submitted his resignation this week.
The premier has said that while his government will be adopting 14 of the 15 recommendations made within the auditor general’s report, he believes that no preferential treatment was given to developers of this land. The one recommendation not being adopted is the re-evaluation of the land removal from the Greenbelt.
Clark has said the premier has confidence in both him and his staff, despite multiple calls from opposition parties for his resignation as well.
