Ford denies involvement in Greenbelt scandal, says RCMP has not contacted him amid investigation

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is adamant he had nothing to do with the Greenbelt scandal and said he hasn’t been contacted by the RCMP, which is now investigating the reversed housing development plan.

“I had nothing to do with the changes in the Greenbelt, number one,” Ford said emphatically at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday.

• Download our app to get local alerts on your device
• Get the latest local updates right to your inbox

“Number two, the auditor general cleared us, cleared my office, and the integrity commissioner cleared me, and my office.”

Ford’s comments follow the release of thousands of pages of emails and documents obtained by Environmental Defence through freedom of information requests about the Greenbelt development plans and urban boundary expansions.

The advocacy group claims the internal government communications show Ontario political staff directed changes that would benefit certain developers.

Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk arrived at a similar conclusion following a value-for-money investigation in August, which looked into the government’s plan to remove 15 areas from the protected Greenbelt to build 50,000 homes.

Lysyk also found the owners of the 15 sites chosen for development would see more than an $8.3 billion increase to the values of their properties.

In September, Ford reversed his controversial Greenbelt development plans.

Since then, the RCMP has announced it is investigating the Ontario government’s decision to open up parts of the Greenbelt for development, but Ford said he hasn’t been contacted.

“No, they haven’t reached out to me,” Ford said when asked if he had been called in for an interview.

The RMCP’s Ontario-based Sensitive and International Investigations Unit has taken on the probe.

The unit investigates “high risk matters that cause significant threats to Canada's political, economic and social integrity of its institutions across Canada and internationally,” according to the RCMP website.

Ontario Provincial Police referred the file to the federal investigative body back in August to avoid “any perceived conflict of interest.”

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Katherine DeClerq