Environmental group releases cache of internal government documents on urban boundary changes and Greenbelt
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, left, looks over at Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Paul Calandra, at Queen's Park, in Toronto, on Oct. 30.A cache of internal government records reveals for the first time the direct involvement of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office in selecting specific properties that were earmarked for development when the province unilaterally added land to the urban boundaries of several municipalities.
Eighteen zoning orders given to developers who were guests at Premier Ford’s family wedding, NDP says The documents show the Premier’s Office requested a copy of a map, to ensure that two specific properties in Nobleton, Ont., in York Region north of Toronto, were included in the province’s boundary changes. The properties in question were partly owned by Flato Developments, a company founded by Shakir Rehmatullah. Mr. Rehmatullah is a friend of the Premier’s, who attended his daughter’s wedding last year.
Two senior aides to the Premier, former principal secretary Amin Massoudi and housing adviser Jae Truesdell, have left in recent months. So have two senior aides to then-housing minister Steve Clark, who himself resigned after the Integrity Commissioner concluded he broke ethics rules for failing to supervise the Greenbelt process. At the centre of both theAccording to Monday’s documents, Mr. Amato sent a flurry of 11th-hour e-mails about requests from Flato Development Inc.
Kirsten Jensen, who was then Mr. Amato’s deputy, sent an e-mail marked urgent to ministry bureaucrats on Nov. 3, asking them to look at specific changes to Peel Region’s plan, just a day before the plans were to be released, and saying the request came “from someone at PO.”
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