Ontario Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff Resigns Days After AG Report

Ontario Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff Resigns Days After AG Report
Ontario Premier Doug Ford listens as Ontario’s minister of housing Steve Clark speaks during a press conference in Mississauga, Ont., on Aug. 11, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Cole Burston)
The Canadian Press
8/22/2023
Updated:
8/22/2023
0:00

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office says the chief of staff to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark has resigned.

Ryan Amato’s resignation comes after a recent report from the auditor general found that developers who had access to Amato wound up with 92 per cent of the land that was removed from the protected Greenbelt.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk found that the process of selecting the 15 specific sites to be removed from the Greenbelt for housing development was not transparent.

She said in her report that all but one of the sites were suggested by Amato, who was given packages at an industry event by two key developers, instead of civil servants.

Ford has said no one received preferential treatment.

Last year, the province took 7,400 acres of land out of the Greenbelt to build 50,000 homes and replaced it with about 9,400 acres elsewhere.