Doug Ford denies instructing staff to include land in urban boundary expansions

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he did not instruct staff to include specific developer-owned lands in expansions of urban boundaries that would have allowed building in those areas, despite internal documents suggesting his office had been involved.

The government announced last week that it was reversing course on urban boundary expansions that were introduced last year after new Housing Minister Paul Calandra said there was too much involvement in the process by the former minister's office.

Ford did not specify what issues the province uncovered, but said Tuesday he directed Calandra to "pull" the boundary expansions once Calandra told him about the former minister office involvement.

Advocacy group Environmental Defence released thousands of pages of emails and documents Monday about that process and claimed the communications show political staff had directed changes that would benefit certain developers.

One of the emails from Ryan Amato, the previous housing minister's chief of staff at the time, suggest the premier's office wanted to see maps of land in Nobleton, Ont., "to make sure it's captured."

The ministry was "supposed to show me a map of the settlement area capturing these properties in the settlement area so they could be developed," Amato wrote in the email released by Environmental Defence.

But Ford seemed confused Tuesday at questions about the Nobleton land, which is partially owned by his longtime friend Shakir Rehmatullah's Flato Developments.

"Honestly, I don't even know which lands you're talking about," Ford said, when asked if he had instructed staff to take specific action on the Nobleton lands or any other lands.

"But in saying that, no I didn't, to be very clear."

Rehmatullah's company had also benefited from the province's now-reversed decision to remove 15 parcels of land from the protected Greenbelt to be used for housing.

The opposition said the documents show Ford was involved in selecting which lands would become developable as the government expanded urban boundaries into farmland.

"I don't think anyone believes that his staff were acting independently and that he had no knowledge of anything that was happening," said Jeff Burch, the NDP's housing critic.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser was also incredulous at the premier's claims.

"Maybe he's convinced himself that he's done nothing wrong, but he has and he needs to own up to it," Fraser said.

Last November, the province made a flurry of changes as part of its effort to spur housing development, including changes to the Greenbelt as well as forcing several cities and regions to expand into farmland.

The government recently began to unwind many of those changes following prolonged public outcry and scathing reports from two legislative watchdogs.

The auditor general and the integrity commissioner found in separate reports that the process to remove lands from the Greenbelt was rushed, and favoured certain developers over others.

Former housing minister Steve Clark resigned in September not long after the integrity commissioner found he violated ethics rules by putting his head in the sand while his chief of staff, Amato, selected which lands would be removed from the Greenbelt. Those lands went to certain developers who had asked Amato to have them removed from the protected area.

The RCMP has announced it is investigating the province's decision to open up parts of the Greenbelt to build housing.

In order to expand municipalities, the province had changed official plans for Barrie, Belleville, Guelph, Hamilton, Ottawa and Peterborough as well as the Regional Municipalities of Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York, and Wellington County.

Environmental Defence said the thousands of documents it uncovered -- largely emails, maps and presentations -- showed a similar pattern in that process as was seen with the Greenbelt removals, when it came to which lands would be involved in the urban boundary expansions.

On Oct. 31, 2022, shortly before the changes to urban boundaries were announced on Nov. 4, Amato was working with non-political staffers on changes to Hamilton's official plan, the documents show.

"I would like all of these changes made," Amato wrote to Kirstin Jensen, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing at the time.

Two ministers and several senior Ford staffers have resigned in wake of the Greenbelt scandal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2023.