Amato out, RCMP in: Greenbelt scandal continues to escalate

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a new Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park

The Greenbelt debacle keeps ramping up.

About two weeks after Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk published her explosive report on the Ford government's Greenbelt land swap, two major developments unfolded over the span of about 16 hours. 

The first of these dominoes fell early on Tuesday evening when Premier Doug Ford's office announced that it had accepted the resignation of Ryan Amato, who had been Housing Minister Steve Clark's chief of staff.

The auditor's report said Amato drove the "seriously flawed" and "biased" land selection process that's estimated to mostly benefit major developers who had "direct access" to him to the tune of $8.3-billion-plus, thanks to the increase in value of newly unprotected lands that they own.

Amato was vacationing in Italy when the auditor released her report on Aug. 9. Despite a flurry of calls, including from opposition parties at Queen's Park, that Amato be fired, he stayed on as Clark's chief of staff until Tuesday. Ford himself insisted that Amato not be fired, the Toronto Star reported last Thursday.

His resignation came as a surprise on Tuesday evening — and the second domino fell the next morning. 

At 7 a.m., the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) published a statement saying that it referred the Greenbelt matter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) "to avoid any potential perceived conflict of interest." About an hour later, the RCMP's Ontario division said in a statement that it received the OPP's referral "to investigate irregularities in the disposition of the Greenbelt," which it "will review... and will take appropriate action as deemed necessary."

Although in its first statement the RCMP said "the investigation is in its infancy and is ongoing," it quickly clarified that it's only just begun evaluating whether to launch a full-fledged investigation. "After we have conducted a full assessment, we will determine whether to launch an investigation," the federal police service said.

It marks the first public change in how police have been involved in over half a year.

Environmental advocates and politicians first asked the OPP to investigate the Greenbelt land swap late last year. Shortly afterwards, the provincial police's anti-rackets branch began a review to determine if it would launch an investigation. Between then and when it referred the matter to the RCMP on Wednesday, the OPP's stated position towards the issue hadn't changed; the provincial police force repeatedly said it was simply continuing its review. 

The OPP's decision to forward responsibility of investigation involving the provincial government is rare in and of itself. The provincial police investigated Ford's Liberal predecessors a few times, even laying charges, but never asked the RCMP to take the work over.

The opposition parties at Queen's Park had plenty to say after Amato resigned and the RCMP took over responsibility for deciding whether to investigate the Greenbelt scandal.

Speaking to journalists at the legislature, NDP and official Opposition Leader Marit Stiles called Amato's resignation the "bare minimum."

"(His resignation) doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of accountability we're looking for in the corrupt backroom dealings regarding the Greenbelt, that we know favoured a select few wealthy developers with connections to the (Progressive) Conservative Party," Stiles added. 

"Mr. Amato's resignation does not resolve this situation... Premier Ford must open the books to a full investigation," interim Liberal leader John Fraser said in a statement.

"The accountability process has finally begun," Green Leader Mike Schreiner said in a statement.

Stiles, Fraser and Schreiner each reiterated their calls for Clark's resignation as housing minister. The NDP and Green party leaders also both expressed that the former Greenbelt lands should be put back under their previous protections.

The Ford government has been battling against controversy over its Greenbelt changes since announcing the plans last November. Excluding a possible investigation by the RCMP, there are still up to a half-dozen ongoing probes related to the Greenbelt land swap, or developers or other insiders' relations with the Ford government.

Since around the New Year, Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake has been working on an inquiry centred on the housing minister. In mid-January, Wake wrote in a report that his office was "preparing summonses for numerous witnesses to be interviewed" in this investigation. Lysyk told the Narwhal in a recent interview that she was aware that developers Michael Rice and Silvio De Gasperis — major beneficiaries of the Greenbelt land swap — had spoken to Wake.

The integrity commissioner has also effectively paused a second inquiry, centred on the premier, while he finished the one focused on Clark. This inquiry, which Wake wrote on March 16 that he'd decided to put "in abeyance," is based on developers' attendance at Ford's daughter's wedding and the stag and doe before it last year.

Lysyk found through her investigation that a lawyer representing Shakir Rehmatullah, a developer who attended Ford's daughter's wedding and benefited from the Greenbelt land swap, emailed Amato days after the Sept. 25 celebration requesting changes to the protections of later-removed land that he owns.

In following up on one of Lysyk's report's recommendations, the premier's office asked the Office of the Integrity Commissioner to look specifically at Amato's dealings with developers and their representatives. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Wake's office said it'll "address the request from the Premier’s Office that (Wake) provide a determination on whether (Amato) acted contrary to the requirements of the Public Service of Ontario Act" after the commissioner completes his Clark-focused inquiry.

Due to the fact that staff of the Office of the Auditor General were unable to speak to Rice and De Gasperis in the course of their investigation, Lysyk has left the door open to her office doing follow-up work. Lysyk's 10-year term as Ontario's auditor general ends on Sept. 3.

Rice and De Gasperis were the developers who handed Amato packages at the Sept. 14 industry dinner. Lands identified in those sites and others that they later sent to Amato ended up combining to represent 92 per cent of the acreage removed from the Greenbelt last year.

Rice and De Gasperis both fought summons issued by the auditor general's office with filings they made in court. "Should new or additional information come to our attention after the tabling of this report, the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario may consider whether any additional audit work is merited," Lysyk's Aug. 9 report said.

The integrity commissioner's spokesperson also confirmed to The Trillium earlier this summer that the separate lobbying by two former close aides of Ford's had caught the office's attention. The commissioner's office didn't say whether it was officially investigating either of them, since it's barred by law from doing so.

In her report, Lysyk wrote that her office "found several examples where it appears that political public service staff gave preferential treatment to lobbyists, potentially in violation of the Public Service of Ontario Act."

—With files from Jessica Smith Cross, Jack Hauen and Aidan Chamandy

This story was updated at 4:26 p.m. with up to date information that the Office of the Integrity Commissioner provided after it was initially published.