Provincial police are bowing out of any potential investigation into the Ford government's handling of the Greenbelt land swap.
OPP announced Wednesday it will be referring the matter to the RCMP to avoid any "perceived conflict of interest." According to the brief statement, the OPP has received a number of inquiries regarding an investigation into the Greenbelt.
"In order to protect the integrity of the process, it would not be appropriate to provide any further comment," the statement concluded.
The RCMP confirmed shortly after the OPP statement was issued that it has received the referral to investigate "irregularities" in the disposition of the Greenbelt.
"We will review and assess the information received and will take appropriate action as deemed necessary. As the investigation is in its infancy and is ongoing, we decline to offer any further comments," the RCMP said in a statement.
Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk released a scathing report earlier this month that found the province favoured certain developers, who had direct influence over the government, when opening up the protected land for development. Those developers saw their property values on the 7,400 acres of land skyrocket by $8.3 billion, according to Lysyk.
Her report said immediately following the 2022 election, Premier Doug Ford directed Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark to conduct “swaps, expansions, contractions, and policy updates” that would remove protections from the Greenbelt. Over a timeline of just three weeks, government staff were instructed to find 22 parcels of Greenbelt land for development.
The report went on to outline ties between the Premier’s Office, Clark, and the minister's chief of staff Ryan Amato. It alleges Amato directed staff on which parcels of land would have their protections removed. Selected land that failed to meet the development criteria resulted in changes that would specifically allow the land to have its protections removed. In the case of 14 of the 15 parcels chosen, Amoto was directly lobbied by developers, the report said.
Amato resigned from his post Tuesday.
Ford and Clark have denied any wrongdoing, maintaining they were not aware of which lanes were selected for removal.
A Ford spokesperson said the OPP decision to refer the investigation to the RCMP was made independent of the government.
"The government is currently working to implement all 14 recommendations put forward in the [auditor general's] report related to process," Ivana Yelich said.
Lysyk's report actually contained 15 recommendations.
The one the Ford government said they will not follow asks them to reevaluate the land swaps and consider reversing them.
