Ontario NDP submits new evidence to integrity commissioner in Greenbelt inquiry | globalnews.ca

upcoming leaders Ontario NDP New evidence has been presented to Ontario’s integrity commissioner on the Ford government’s controversial decision to open up parts of the Greenbelt to housing development.

The latest allegations claim that at least one developer, who bought a piece of land in King Township in September 2022, may have had prior knowledge of the government’s plans to remove the property from the greenbelt – announced by the government in November a decision announced.

Premier Doug Ford and Housing Minister Steve Clark have faced questions from environmental advocates and political critics about possible insider trading of confidential government information, which has sparked an Integrity Commissioner ethics investigation into Clark.

The government has strongly denied that any developer buying the 15 parcels of land being removed from the greenbelt was informed about the decision before it was made public.

In a two-part letter, Ontario NDP incoming leaders Marit Styles Raised concerns about a meeting involving a City of York region, a developer and a local hospital.

Styles alleges that the meeting included a development company – The Rice Group – and officials from King Township and Southlake Health Network on November 1 to discuss greenbelt land that had recently been purchased by the Rice Group.

“The commitment of a modest fee for the hospital land was verbally conveyed to Mayor Pellegrini during an in-person meeting with Rice Group and Southlake representatives on November 1, 2022,” King Township wrote, in Stiles’ letter. Having said.

Three days later, Ontario announced it was removing the land from its protected status to allow homes to be built faster in the province.

“It is clear that King Township was aware of the removal of this land from the Greenbelt and discussed this information with Rice Group representatives prior to the November 4 announcement,” Stiles wrote.

She argued that the meeting meant Clark was not accurate when he refused to inform any developers of his plans in advance.

Global News contacted Rice Group to inquire whether the company had any advance notice of the Ford government’s intention to convert the greenbelt, but did not receive a response.

However, Mayor Steve Pellegrini, who attended the meeting, told Global News that nothing happened.

In an interview, Pellegrini said that members of the Rice group, which bought the $80 million land, wanted to introduce themselves and that meetings with developers who owned greenbelt land were commonplace.

Pellegrini said he used the opportunity, unsurprisingly, to push for land to develop new hospital infrastructure, which, he said, could be allowed under provincial regulations.

Pellegrini said he opposed the Ford government’s plans to build new homes on land removed from the greenbelt. He said it would be nearly impossible to service the new homes, especially with the waste water infrastructure.

Ontario’s integrity commissioner and auditor general are both working on an investigation into the Ford government’s decision to remove the land from the greenbelt.

The integrity commissioner accepted a request from Stiles on 18 January to investigate whether Clarke had broken conflict of interest and insider information rules.

The province’s Auditor General also released a letter the same day, acknowledging a call from the leaders of the Ontario Greens, Liberals and NDP to “value the financial and environmental impacts related to recent government decisions affecting the greenbelt— for K-money audit”.

The Ontario Provincial Police is deciding whether to launch an investigation into the decision after complaints including those lodged by the advocacy group Environmental Defense.

This comes in the wake of a controversial decision to remove 7,400 acres of land from the greenbelt and convert it into a housing development.

&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.