Ontario’s integrity commissioner has found that Housing Minister Steve Clark broke ethics rules for his role in the Ford government’s Greenbelt land swap.
In a blistering 166-page report, J. David Wake said the way the province went about removing 7,400 acres from the Greenbelt was “marked by misinterpretation, unnecessary hastiness and deception.”
The integrity commissioner’s report agreed with a previous, and equally damning, account from Ontario’s auditor general which suggested Ryan Amato, Clark’s recently resigned chief of staff, spearheaded the process. The responsibility for that, the integrity commissioner suggested, landed at the minister’s door.
Wake found Amato had been “operating largely alone and undirected,” despite the impression from other staff he was under direct instructions from either Premier Doug Ford’s office or from Clark.
“Mr. Amato advised Minister Clark to ‘leave it with me’ as he embarked on a chaotic and almost reckless process that I find led to an uninformed and opaque decision which resulted in the creation of an opportunity to further the private interests of some developers improperly,” the integrity commissioner wrote.
Wake said during the inquiry, his staff received evidence from 61 witnesses and Minister Clark. His office also reviewed maps, documents, text messages, emails, briefing decks and other documents which amounted to thousands of pages.
The integrity commissioner said he was “satisfied” with the cooperation he received from the people he interviewed.
Wake determined Clark breached sections 2 and 3(2) of the Member’s Integrity Act.
The report said section 2 of the Act says “making or participating in a decision that furthers another person’s interest improperly is prohibited.”
Meanwhile, the report said “communicating information that may be used to further another person’s interest improperly is prohibited under subsection 3(2) of the Act.”
Wake said his inquiry was “limited to determining whether Minister Clark’s role in the decision to remove certain properties from the Greenbelt contravened the Act.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford again stood by Clark on Wednesday saying in a brief statement he will continue to serve as his Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
“When it comes to the Greenbelt land-swap, the government’s singular goal has been to build more homes people can afford,” the statement said.
“Minister Clark will continue to work towards delivering on our promise to build at least 1.5 million homes and ensure public trust and confidence is maintained every step of the way.”
In his own statement, Clark said “the buck stops with me” and accepted the integrity commissioner’s findings.
“There were clear flaws in the process that led to today’s report,” Clark’s statement said.
Developers benefited from ‘chaotic’ process
In his report, Wake painted a picture of Amato as working alone in a process he was unfamiliar with at breakneck speed.
Before taking on his role as Clark’s chief of staff, Amato had not led a ministry, nor had he worked on the housing file. His previous job was as a director of stakeholder relations at the Ministry of Transport and he once worked as a driver for Patrick Brown.
Amato told Wake he had received no training after taking on his role.
“Untrained and unsupervised, in the coming months he oversaw a small team of public servants that at the end of October proposed to the minister that 15 properties either be removed from the Greenbelt or be redesignated,” the report said.
Wake’s report said Amato was “drinking from the firehose” as he struggled to get to grips with his role on a tiny timeline. The speed was jumped on by developers who were able to push their interests and sensed an opportunity, the report said.
The report pointed out that — instead of simply acknowledging receipt of packages given to him by developers — Amato asked for more information. “This was a subtle change in the messaging that was noticed quickly by the ever-sensitive antennae in the developer network,” Wake wrote.
Developers then sent detailed maps, files and other supporting material to Queen’s Park. There was no public call for submissions which meant only the developers who “caught wind of this change” were given an opportunity to see their lands removed, the report said.
Of the 15 parcels of land removed from the Greenbelt, 14 were suggested by Amato, who the integrity commissioner said staff felt was acting under the authority of an elected official.
The auditor general’s report found the value of land removed from the Greenbelt increased by $8.3 billion.
Amato resigned from his post earlier in August and said the characterization of his actions was wrong.
“I am confident that I have acted appropriately, and that a fair and complete investigation would reach the same conclusion,” Amato wrote in his resignation letter.
“However, these public statements have made it impossible, as a practical matter, for me to continue in my present role,” Amato said. “I hereby resign effective immediately from my role as Chief of Staff to Minister Clark.”
Lack of housing leads to conversations about Greenbelt changes
The integrity commission found that the initial conversions regarding Greenbelt lands took place in the Premier’s office in early 2022 amid lacklustre housing construction starts.
Senior staff in the premier’s office told Wake the decrease in housing starts “may have been an impetus for looking at the Greenbelt” and that the extraordinary measure was a “lever to pull.”
The integrity commissioner was told the work to add Greenbelt instructions into Clark’s mandate letter began during the 2022 election campaign. Ford’s head of housing and two other policy staffers worked out a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the properties.
One of the items, Wake was told, was changing the Greenbelt to increase the housing supply.
All the public servants who spoke to the integrity commissioner said they found out about the Greenbelt changes either by reading or drafting the mandate letter.
The final version of the mandate letter included a short paragraph about the Greenbelt. It said, in part: “In Fall 2022, complete work to codify processes for swaps, expansions, contractions and policy updates for the Greenbelt.”
Some political staff and civil servants told the integrity commissioner that not every item in a mandate letter has to be completed. Clark’s deputy minister said she was surprised the Greenbelt decision was included in the mandate letter.
During his interview, Clark said, “It’s my job as minister to take the mandate letter and provide recommendations on the mandate letter. Ultimately, it’s cabinet’s decision whether those items move forward or not.”
When Amato was appointed as chief of staff in July 2022, he was shown the mandate letter. He said in a conversation with Clark he said “this is something we’re probably never going to do.” According to the report, Clark agreed.
Weeks later, in September, Amato said he went to Premier Ford to ask for clarity.
Amato said that in a meeting with Ford, his chief of staff and Clark, he asked if the Greenbelt swaps were something that “needs to be done” or if they might not happen.
He said he left the meeting clear on the fact the Greenbelt plan would move forward. On Sept. 15, Amato sent a text to another staffer saying “they are very serious,” referring to Ford and his chief of staff.
“Serious about doing the Greenbelt swaps?” the other staffer asked. Amato replied, “Yes.”
None of Ford, Sackville or Clark had any memory of the meeting.
The integrity commissioner said he believed that the mandate letter was “misinterpreted by Minister Clark and Mr. Amato which led them to embark on what I find to have been a process that was rushed, non-transparent and almost reckless.”
He said the pair thought they had to complete the process by the fall of 2022; he said senior staff in the premier’s office said the letter asked them to explore the process.
Integrity commissioner says Steve Clark decided to ‘stick his head in the sand’
The integrity commissioner’s report argues Clark deliberately left the process to Amato to insulate himself from the consequences.
Clark told the integrity commissioner he was briefed by civil servants on the Greenbelt changes on Oct. 26, 2022, and presented them to cabinet days later on Nov. 2. His deputy minister said Clark had been given a “high level update” earlier in the fall but said the conversation did not go into specifics.
Amato also told Wake he did not offer the minister specifics, including after briefings with staff.
Several people told the integrity commissioner Clark did not seem “keen to be doing this project” and the minister said to Wake he was “not in a very happy mood” when he was briefed in October.
Clark said that he was in a bad mood because he was “making the decision which was counter to some of the decisions I had made in the first term. And so it’s a tough decision.”
The integrity commissioner also pointed out that the latter half of 2022 was a particularly busy time within the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
The province announced strong mayor powers in August, the same month as the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference. In October, controversial new housing legislation was tabled. Clark said he had passed six bills within 12 months, more than any other minister.
Wake said he believed Clark didn’t know about many of the key steps Amato had taken. Ignorance, he said, did not absolve the minister.
“It may seem incredible that Minister Clark would have chosen to stick his head in the sand on such an important initiative being undertaken by his ministry but I believe that was exactly what he did,” Wake wrote.
“This is partly understood by the fact he was busy during this period, he was aware that the outcome would be politically challenging for him given his completely opposite stance on the Greenbelt for the whole of the government’s first term, and here was Mr. Amato reassuringly offering to provide at least temporary relief from having to deal with it.”
The report pointed out political staff like Amato cannot direct civil servants unless it is clear they are “acting in the role of proxy for the minister or the government.”
Wake said non-political staff were under the impression Amato was operating under the direction of the premier’s office. The integrity commissioner accused Amato of pulling off “this deception” by referencing meetings with staff in the premier’s office.
The report said there was “no basis” for Amato to exercise authority of non-political staff “as he was not in fact transmitting instructions from the Minister or even the Premier’s Office.”
Opposition parties call again for Steve Clark to resign
The Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the report was another “damning piece of the puzzle,” accusing the Ford government of corruption.
“Ontarians deserve nothing less than full accountability from this Minister who used his public position to benefit (a) select few ultra-wealthy developers,” adding Ford should ask Clark to resign.
Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser also called for Clark to resign, saying the minister “lost the trust of the public.”
“It was Minister Clark who brought this selection of lands to Cabinet and supported their development with full knowledge of what he was doing,” Fraser said in a statement.
Fraser said the report shows the Greenbelt scandal is not over.
“We need to dig deeper, and Premier Ford must open the books on this scandal,” he said.
In a statement released minutes after the report was made public, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner called for Clark to resign.
“Minister Steve Clark must resign — or the Premier has an obligation to fire him,” Schreiner said.
Schreiner said he was “appalled” by the report’s findings, saying Clark had “claimed that he had nothing to hide – that he had full confidence the Integrity Commissioner wouldn’t find anything.”
“Today’s report shows none of that was true,” Schreiner said.
Schreiner said he is also calling for an independent public inquiry into the Ford government’s handling of the Greenbelt swap, and for the return of all removed lands to Ontario’s Greenbelt.
Comments