Ontario Premier Doug Ford has reversed course and unexpectedly stopped all Greenbelt development.

“I made a promise to you that I wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt,” Ford said Thursday afternoon during a news conference in Niagara Falls, Ont. “I broke that promise. And for that, I’m very, very sorry.”

Ford’s reversal came after the minister of public and service delivery resigned in relation to the provincial integrity commissioner’s investigation of land removed from the Greenbelt, a protected zone surrounding the Greater Toronto Area.

Kaleed Rasheed resigned from both cabinet and the Progressive Conservative caucus. Rasheed’s office admitted to giving incorrect information to Integrity Commissioner David Wake about the former minister’s 2020 trip to Las Vegas.

While there, Rasheed was in contact with developer Shakir Rehmatullah, a friend whose companies own lands that were removed from the Greenbelt in 2022 and have received some provincial zoning orders that override local planning rules.

Rasheed told Wake that he was “shocked” to encounter Rehmatullah briefly in a hotel lobby. But CTV reported that they received massages at the same time in the hotel spa.

Rasheed became the second cabinet minister to resign relation the controversial land removed the Greenbelt.

Former housing minister Steve Clark resigned after Wake found that he breached ethics rules and failed to oversee the land-removal process.