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Ontario  + Canada + Cross Border News  + Multi-residential Housing  | 
Some developers are seeking to keep their properties out of Ontario's Greenbelt after the provincial government scrapped a removal plan.

Ford Denies Wrongdoing in Greenbelt Scandal

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is denying that the did anything wrong in relation to the province’s Greenbelt scandal.

“I had nothing to do with the changes in the Greenbelt, number one,” Ford told reporters Tuesday.

“Number two, the auditor general cleared us, cleared my office, and the integrity commissioner cleared me, and my office.”

The comments came after Environmental Defence released thousands of pages of emails and documents related to the province’s scrapped attempt to develop parts of the Greenbelt, a protected zone surrounding the Greater Toronto Area. The documents and emails, which Environmental Defence obtained through freedom of information requests, point contain several references to requests from the premier’s office to aides regarding specific Greenbelt properties.

The RCMP has launched an investigation into the government’s attempt to remove land from the Greenbelt.

In September, Ford abruptly backtracked on plans to allow rental-housing development parcels of land removed the protected zone. Ford’s reversal came after Kaleed Rasheed resigned as minister of public and service delivery following provincial Integrity Commissioner David Wake’s investigation of the land removal.

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About Monte Stewart

Monte Stewart serves as Content Director - Canada for Connect Commercial Real Estate. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monte provides daily news coverage of major Canadian commercial real estate markets, including Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. He has written about the real estate sector for various media outlets and Avison Young since the early 2000s. In addition, he has covered sports, general news and business for several leading wire services and publications, including The Canadian Press, The Associated Press, The Calgary Herald, The Globe and Mail, Research Money, The Daily Oil Bulletin, Natural Gas World and The Toronto Star. Monte is active in his community as a youth basketball coach and raises funds for such charitable causes as Movember.

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