Ontario integrity commissioner won’t reopen Greenbelt review due to internal email

An Ontario Greenbelt sign is shown as it's surrounded by farmland near Caledon, Ont., on Thursday, October 12, 2023. The Greenbelt is a protected area of green space, farmland, forests, wetlands, and watersheds, located in Southern Ontario, Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Ontario’s integrity commissioner will not be reopening his investigation into the Doug Ford government’s handling of the Greenbelt, arguing that a recently-surfaced internal email sent to a staffer’s personal email address does not support claims the premier’s office was inconsistent in their previous testimony.

The email in question, which was obtained by the Ontario New Democratic Party through a Freedom of Information Act request, was sent on Oct. 17, 2022 and includes a list of criteria for removing land from the Greenbelt.

The email was sent from Ryan Amato, then chief-of-staff to Housing Minister Steve Clark, to the premier’s then-principal secretary Patrick Sackville’s personal email address.

Sackville is now Ford’s chief of staff.

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The email doesn’t include much text. Instead it simply lists the criteria for land removal, including location, infrastructure services, and potential offsets.

Testimony from Sackville during the original Greenbelt investigation suggests “he did not discuss specific properties to be removed or removal criteria with Mr. Amato until the briefing that occurred on Oct. 27, 2022.”

Ontario Integrity Commissioner David Wake acknowledged in a public opinion released Thursday that Sackville independently provided the email to his office once it was found as part of the NDP’s request.

Sackville maintains that while he was generally aware the ministry of housing was developing criteria for Greenbelt land removal, he did not know until Oct. 27 what was actually involved. According to Wake, who published Sackville’s responses to his inquiry verbatim, the staffer had no recollection of seeing Amato’s email until he searched his files yet again when the NDP made their request.

“I do not conduct government business on my personal e-mail, and would not have expected or anticipated such an e-mail, particularly since there was some correspondence occurring on the government e-mails at that time,” Sackville told Wake in February 2024.

“It is not unusual for me to not check my personal e-mail for several days, or simply overlook an e-mail sent to my personal address.”

He noted that he did not find the email when searching for records ahead of the initial integrity commissioner inquiry, noting that was “an oversight” on his part. He also said that he did not respond to the email or acknowledge it at the time.

In late August, Wake released a report finding that Clark, as housing minister, broke the Member’s Integrity Act when carving up the Greenbelt for development, leading to “the private interests of certain developers being furthered improperly.”

• Ontario integrity commissioner report finds Steve Clark broke ethic rules

The 166-page report outlined a “chaotic and almost reckless process” lacking in leadership and supervision. It also suggested that political staff were receiving emails from lobbyists and other external parties on personal email accounts, and that government emails were often at times forwarded back and forth.

The NDP asked the integrity commissioner to conduct another review after finding the personal email in Sackville’s records, arguing that it could indicate inconsistencies in the government’s timeline.

"Given that Sackville and Amato exchanged these emails in the context of the Ford government making shady backroom deals with land speculators to carve up the Greenbelt, it defies belief that the Premier and his office knew nothing about the plan," NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in a statement to CTV News Toronto.

"We still don't have an answer as to why Amato was using personal emails to discuss the Greenbelt removals. We continue to believe that the big decisions concerning the Greenbelt were made within the premier's office, and we expect that further evidence will emerge that demonstrates this."

However, in his opinion, Wake said that he accepts Sackville’s claims that he did not see or respond to Amato’s email from his personal account, and therefore did not know about the Greenbelt removal criteria earlier than he suggested in his earlier testimony.

“The findings made in the Clark Report concerning the involvement of the Premier’s Office are unaffected by the revelation of the October 17 email,” Wake wrote. “I have accepted his explanation as to how it was overlooked.”

The lands removed from the Greenbelt have since been returned following a bill tabled by the Progressive Conservatives in October 2023.