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.
Crunching numbers isn’t exactly known for evoking excitement.
Yet while she’s been Ontario’s auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk has had her share of the dramatic. Not one to shy away from clashing with the premier, she’s two-for-two in holding testy relations with those atop the provincial governments’ of her days.
Thanks to some fortuitous timing, what’s likely her last hurrah as the provincial auditor shapes up to give her an exit that’s been emblematic of her time in the office.
On Wednesday, just over three weeks before Lysyk’s decade-long term expires, she’ll release her office’s special audit of the Ford government’s Greenbelt changes. It comes months into a controversy that the government has been unable to escape and that the provincial police have kept an eye on as well — aspects shared with her earliest work in the job.
When Lysyk became Ontario’s auditor general in September 2013, the Ontario Provincial Police were months into an investigation that’d eventually land the previous premier’s chief-of-staff in jail.
Her inaugural report served as fuel for that controversy. The between $675 to $815 million her office estimated it cost to cancel the Oakville gas plant meant taxpayers were looking at a $1-billion bill for the Liberals’ decision to abort plans to build it and another plant in Mississauga just before the 2011 election.
A couple of years later, the OPP criminally charged two of former premier Dalton McGuinty’s top staff over a plan to delete records that may have shone a light on their government’s plans to cancel the plants. Months before the 2018 election, the former premier’s chief of staff David Livingston, was found guilty of illegal use of a computer and attempted mischief to data and sentenced to four months in jail.
Now, on the eve of what may be the final report Lysyk releases as Ontario’s auditor, the provincial police’s anti-rackets branch is continuing to mull over whether to again investigate the government.
This time, it’s over Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives’ opening up of the Greenbelt that’s been under Lysyk’s magnifying glass — and, to a lesser extent so far, that has been on the OPP’s radar.
The OPP’s “review,” as spokesperson Bill Dickson has described it, dates back to late last year.
By late February 2023, the provincial police had interviewed more than a dozen people as part of this work. By then, “no one (had) come forward with proof … that they have information a Government official tipped off developers, or took a bribe in doing so,” Det.-Sgt. Todd Dart of the anti-rackets branch wrote in an email, which The Trillium obtained and reported at the time.
Little has been made public about the OPP’s review since earlier this year. It’s still ongoing however, The Trillium confirmed with the provincial police on Tuesday.
The OPP’s spokesperson said months ago that the anti-rackets branch’s work has been unimpacted by the auditor’s work, or the separate Greenbelt-focused investigation by Ontario’s integrity commissioner. Nevertheless, several sources either close to the Conservatives or police have surmised that the OPP won’t shut the door on the matter until seeing the work of the province’s watchdogs.
It’s the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario’s practice to keep quiet about the specifics of any given audit until publishing a report.
Still, Lysyk’s “Special Report on Changes to the Greenbelt,” as a media advisory titled it, should bring about at least some answers that opposition parties and environmental advocacy groups have called for for months.
The Ford government revealed its intention to remove 15 parcels of land totalling 7,400 acres from the two-million-acre Greenbelt last November. The move is meant to facilitate 50,000 homes being built on the lands, to help contribute to the government’s goal of having 1.5 million new homes built in Ontario by 2031.
Some hints about what Lysyk’s report will hold can be found in the complainants’ original request, comments by those involved, and court filings by developers who challenged the auditor’s jurisdiction.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles, Liberal interim leader John Fraser, and Green Leader Mike Schreiner jointly asked Lysyk to investigate in January. They wanted her office to “investigate the environmental impact of the removal of these Greenbelt lands” and to conduct a “value-for-money audit” that looked at how much the removed lands’ owners stand to benefit.
Owners of lands being removed from the Greenbelt are expected to make 10s of millions of dollars, or more, by developing them.
At least six different developers bought lands that were officially removed from environmental protections since 2018, the year Ford’s PCs were elected, or later, as was reported by the Narwhal and Toronto Star in November. Ford had promised in 2018 that the PCs “won’t touch” the Greenbelt.
Nine developers benefiting are major Progressive Conservative donors, while five utilized former Conservative politicians and officials as registered lobbyists, reported the Star and Narwhal.
In a letter responding to Stiles, Fraser and Schreiner, Lysyk told the opposition party leaders that her office would conduct “certain audit work” that would be shaped in the weeks that followed.
“I can assure you we will take the matters raised in your letter into consideration in determining the full scope of our work,” Lysyk wrote on Jan. 18.
The Ford government and the relevant ministries also promised their “full cooperation” with her audit, Lysyk’s letter said.
Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark was unsurprisingly on Lysyk’s interview list. His ministry officially executed the Greenbelt changes. By May 31, Clark and Lysyk had a “quick conversation” as part of her work, he told reporters on that date.
The auditor attempted to interview at least a couple of the developers who benefited, court filings they made show. Michael Rice and Silvio De Gasperis each filed separate claims to avoid summonses that Lysyk issued them.
In the filings, lawyers for the developers say Lysyk asked to interview both of them. The auditor wanted to broadly discuss land use, planning, and their involvement with the government, along with the specifics of their Greenbelt holdings, according to court documents the developers filed.
Something else that’ll almost certainly come with Lysyk’s report on Wednesday is controversy.
When asked a few weeks ago by a reporter about the developers resisting participating, Ford challenged the auditor’s work, saying “it’s not even within her scope.”
“She’s asked to look for value for money,” Ford said, also saying he thinks looking into the Greenbelt changes “isn't even in her realm.”
Ford’s comments in July were far from the first time he’s challenged Lysyk’s reporting, or tactics. Kathleen Wynne, the Liberal premier before Ford, also didn’t shy from casting doubt on certain conclusions Lysyk made while Wynne was in office.
Whether or not Lysyk’s report will prompts the OPP to end its review or formalize its investigation likely won’t be clear on Wednesday — or possibly even when Lysyk’s term ends on Sept. 3 — but it could define the Greenbelt saga, and perhaps her time as auditor general.
