A farmer tills his field on a farm in the Ontario Greenbelt in Freelton, Ont., on July 10.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province’s Auditor-General is overstepping her authority by demanding interviews and documents from two prominent developers who are benefitting from the government’s decision to carve land out of the protected Greenbelt.
Developers Silvio De Gasperis and Michael Rice have recently filed court applications to quash separate summonses issued by Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk, who is undertaking a “value-for-money” audit of the “financial and environmental impact” of the government’s Greenbelt decision.
Mr. Ford on Thursday said Ms. Lysyk’s attempts to force the developers to testify and provide documentation are outside of the realm of her office, which scrutinizes government spending.
“It’s not even within her scope. She has to look for value for money,” Mr. Ford told reporters at an unrelated skills-training announcement in Hamilton, Ont.
Still, the Premier said his office is participating in both Ms. Lysyk’s probe into the Greenbelt as well as that of Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake, who is investigating whether in making the changes, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark violated legislation that bans MPPs from making a decision or sharing inside information that furthers someone’s private interest.
The Globe and Mail and other news outlets have reported that some of the land taken out of the Greenbelt, which is expected to spike in value once opened for development, changed hands as recently as September 2022. Both Mr. Clark and Mr. Ford have denied tipping off developers about the Greenbelt changes.
“I encourage everyone to co-operate, our office is co-operating, again because there’s nothing to hide here. We’re building homes, we’re going to continue building homes,” Mr. Ford said.
A spokesperson for the Auditor-General said the office does not comment on the details of audits that are under way.
“The Auditor General Act gives our office the authority to request information and answers to questions from any person that may have relevant information pertinent to our audits,” spokeswoman Becky Fong said.
Despite repeatedly pledging not to touch the Greenbelt, Mr. Ford’s government went ahead with a plan in late 2022 to remove 3,000 hectares from the area, which comprises 800,000 hectares of farmland and countryside that arcs around the Greater Toronto Area and was created in 2005.
The Progressive Conservative government has said its Greenbelt changes will result in 50,000 new homes, as it seeks to facilitate the construction of 1.5 million homes over the next decade. (Ontario is compensating for the removals by adding 3,800 hectares elsewhere to the protected area.)
Both Ms. De Gasperis and Mr. Rice are among the group of developers who stand to benefit from the Greenbelt land swap.
In a June 29 application to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Silvio De Gasperis, president of TACC Group, says he does not have “relevant information” to provide to Ms. Lysyk, “whose mandate generally is to determine if government money has been well spent, rather than how Greenbelt boundaries were redrawn by the Ontario government.”
He also argues Ms. Lysyk is seeking information from him on matters that are not within his knowledge, such as the province’s expectations about housing development and “macroeconomic issues.”
In a statement to The Globe and Mail, Mr. De Gasperis’s lawyer, Neil Wilson, said the Auditor-General requested information on a number of broad topics dealing with planning and government processes and asked for an interview on the Friday of a long weekend on short notice.
He said she also asked for “any and all” documents related to TACC’s land holdings removed from the Greenbelt, many of which were acquired over 20 years ago.
“At this point, the scope and goal of the Auditor General’s investigation are unclear,” Mr. Wilson said in an e-mail.
In court documents filed July 5, Mr. Rice, president and CEO of the Rice Group, also says Ms. Lysyk has no authority to compel his testimony, and is not required to produce any records or documents he considers “commercially sensitive.” Neither Mr. Rice nor his lawyers responded to requests for comment Thursday.
Mr. Rice also says in his filing that Ms. Lysyk’s summons goes beyond her mandate, which the filing says is “not to investigate, audit, and/or examine private citizens under oath, or go on fishing expeditions with respect to their private corporate affairs.”
Official Opposition NDP Leader Marit Stiles, who along with the other Opposition leaders had requested that Ms. Lysyk launch her investigation, said that by trying to avoid scrutiny, the government and the developers were only raising more questions about Greenbelt changes that benefit “a select few of Ford insiders” and PC party donors.
“If there’s nothing to hide, why do that?” she told reporters at Queen’s Park.