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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 12 October 2023

The Mayor of King Township, Steve Pellegrini, knows a lot more about the Greenbelt scandal than he is letting on.  

It seems to me he keeps his own Council in the dark.

And, for some unfathomable reason, they are terrified to ask about his role in trying to get a new hospital built on prime agricultural land in King’s protected Greenbelt.

The evidence shows Mayor Pellegrini cannot be relied upon to tell the truth. He said the first time he spoke to the developer Michael Rice was at a meeting on 1 November 2022 when Rice offered Southlake Chief Executive, Arden Krystal, land in the protected Greenbelt for a new hospital for a nominal fee. Pellegrini’s statement was false. And, to this day, he continues to dissemble.

Pellegrini's lunch with Rice

Pellegrini had lunch with Michael Rice at the Terra Restaurant in Vaughan on 10 August 2022 and had a meeting with the developer on 17 October 2022 to discuss the presentation to Southlake on 1 November 2022. Why did Pellegrini lie? It is inconceivable he would have forgotten meeting Michael Rice earlier.

On 19 April 2023, Pellegrini told me by email:

"I ask(ed) Mr. Rice at our lunch if he would be interested in donating land for the proposed 2nd Southlake. The follow-up meeting was to deal with this matter."

The follow-up meeting on 17 October 2022 included King's Director of Growth Management, Stephen Naylor.

"Moving this idea forward since 2019"

Pellegrini told the King Sentinel in February that he had been intimately involved in the search for a suitable site for a second Southlake:

“I have been moving this idea forward since 2019 – on different lands, with different landowners. At the time of our meeting, I brought the idea of a hospital forward to the Rice Group and they were open to discussion.”

But now, fearful where this Greenbelt scandal is going, he is furiously back-peddling, portraying himself as an interested bystander, insisting the real decisions will be taken by the Province and Southlake. (Click “read more” below for Pellegrini interview with Kelly Cutrara)

"Other lands"

In his report of 30 August 2023, the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, wrote in paragraph 288:

“… the Mayor explained that other lands in the vicinity (of the Bathurst site) had already been discussed as a possible hospital site and that if Mr Rice contributed land from his recently purchased property, he believed it would potentially be a viable option for the hospital and a significant benefit for King Township.”

No-one on King Council – neither elected officials nor senior staff – will admit to knowing where these “other lands” are. Nor will they say who was involved in the discussions on whether these lands would be suitable for a new hospital. The Township has no records of any search for land suitable for a new hospital. Their Director of Growth Management, the tight-lipped Stephen Naylor, says nothing. There are no records of meetings where these “other lands” were considered. And no-one on King Council is curious enough to ask him.

Why doesn’t someone just ask him? 

I would love to have an hour on a public platform with Mayor Pellegrini, just the two of us, taking him through the Greenbelt scandal in his own municipality, asking him what he knew and when he knew it. But I doubt that’s going to happen.

Deputation turned down

So I put in for a deputation to speak to King Council on either 16 or 30 October 2023, whichever was the more convenient for them. In the five minutes allocated, I intended to put one or two simple and straightforward questions directly to Mayor Pellegrini, asking him to identify the “other lands” suitable for a new hospital and who was involved in the discussions. And who was the other party?

Was it John Dunlap, the (now former) Southlake Board Member, landowner and land agent who facilitated the sale of the Greenbelt lands from Bob Schickedanz to Michael Rice?

Unhappily, the Township Clerk, Denny Timm, tells me a deputation is not possible as:

“Council does not offer an open forum component during its meetings. Council’s procedural by-law precludes deputations on matters that are outside Council’s jurisdiction. Your request pertains to the Integrity Commissioner’s Report, the hospital site selection, and provincial decisions regarding the Greenbelt lands – matters that are outside of Council’s jurisdiction and within the jurisdiction of the Province. I am therefore unable to accommodate your request.”

It's too bad there is no open forum. Nor any report from staff updating Council members on the Province's change of heart on developing the Greenbelt. Perhaps I would have been able to hang a deputation on the back of that.

Code of Conduct. 

King Township’s Code of Conduct tells me:

“Members shall act and are expected to perform their functions with honesty, integrity, accountability and transparency.”

and

“in all respects, a member shall refrain from making statements known to be false or with intent to mislead Council or the public.”

I have been in touch with some other members of King Council about Pellegrini’s “other lands’ but they cannot shed any light on these discussions – when they happened and who was involved. I wrote to elected officials on 25 September 2023 (Click “read more” to see email) but all I get is radio silence.

Silence no longer an option

With the RCMP now involved, looking the other way is no longer a sustainable or defensible position. 

On Tuesday 10 October 2023, the RCMP announced it was launching a criminal investigation into

“allegations associated to the decision from the Province of Ontario to open parts of the Greenbelt for development.”

Yet less than two months ago - on 25 August 2023 - Doug Ford, the archetypal wide boy, told reporters he was confident nothing criminal took place in the lead up to the decision to open-up parts of the protected Greenbelt to development.

The RCMP should interview Steve Pellegrini under caution to find out what he knew about the deal to build on prime agricultural land in the protected Greenbelt in his own municipality and when he knew it.

Pellegrini should break the habit of a lifetime and tell the truth.

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See Timeline which shows who was involved and when. See also: King Township Official Plan September 2019

Click "read more" below for Pellegrini's interview with Kelly Cutrara and for my email to King Township's elected Officials.

Read more: The Greenbelt Scandal: Why the RCMP should interview Steve Pellegrini under caution

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 04 October 2023

Corruption is a spreading stain in the Ford Government.  

Ford and his enablers like Paul Calandra contaminate everything they touch.

From their casual disregard for the truth to their shameless and brazen behaviour.

Calandra replaced the disgraced Steve Clark as Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister who looked the other way when his Chief of Staff, Ryan Amato, was dismantling the protected Greenbelt.

But Calandra also stays on as the Government’s business manager in the Legislative Assembly. This allows him to keep a finger on the pulse of what's happening.

Call Doug Ford on 416 325 1941

Yesterday at Queen’s Park, the Opposition Leader, Marit Stiles, asks Ford to publish his personal phone logs for a one-week period last November during the flurry of Greenbelt announcements. Through a Freedom of Information request, Global News finds out there is no evidence Ford used his Government-issue phone. So, in breach of all the rules, did the Premier use his own phone instead?

Calandra refuses to say.

The Auditor General made it clear in her report of 9 August 2023 that Ministers’ phone and email records must be kept:

“Files that relate to the development and delivery of the Government’s policy and legislative agenda, including issues under consideration by the Minister that may form part of the Government’s policy agenda, must also be retained.”

Missing the Point

Deliberately missing the point, Calandra tells us the Premier takes calls from anyone and everyone, all the time:

“The Premier has been very open with respect to how people can contact him. As I said last week, he in fact gave his phone number out in the House, publicly, for everybody to call. I know I’ve been with him, and a number of our caucus members have been with him, when he’s answering calls from constituents with respect to programs or services for people in his riding. He’s not going to stop doing that because that’s the type of person he is.”

Yes. Yes. Yes. But the Government promised to accept all the Auditor General's recommendations, including this one about phone calls and emails.

(As it happens, I called Doug Ford on 5 November 2022 on 416 325 1941. I spoke to a real person but it wasn’t Doug Ford. The Main Man didn’t get back to me. But that was no surprise. There are 14,789,778 people in Ontario)

But anyway… what about the phone logs?

Standing Orders

While Calandra dodges the questions, those around him are clapping like trained seals.

Calandra has presided over two recent revisions of the Standing Orders at Queen’s Park. Sounds dry as dust yet these Standing Orders shape the way in which Ford’s inchoate policies become the law of the land.

In Calandra’s watch, long-standing Parliamentary conventions are quietly thrown overboard. Bills are put on the Statute Book when they are still out for public consultation.

The Auditor General tells us 35,000 responses to the Greenbelt consultation were binned, not analysed. 

No Committee scrutiny

Major pieces of legislation such as the Bill dissolving Peel Region are never sent to Committee for detailed line-by-line scrutiny. This robs people who have knowledge and expertise from putting their views directly to MPPs.

Democratic conventions such as showing up for election debates have been ditched by the Progressive Conservatives.

Ford’s lobotomised PC candidates believe detailed election platforms are for the birds. In their place we have FordFests, free meals for voters and ‘free” BBQs paid by taxpayers.

Ford believes manifestos would be an albatross around his neck so, instead, he simply promises “to get the job done”. Whatever that is. 

At the last election in June 2022, Ford did not give any hint he would allow development in the Greenbelt. A policy he put in motion as soon as the votes were counted.

Politicians v Judges

In 2018, in the tussle over the size of Toronto City Council, Doug Ford lambasted the judges, pointing out he was elected and they weren’t.

Oh dear! 

Ford meant that as a slam dunk. But it has backfired. Spectacularly.

The judges, too, have a role to play.

As Ford is now finding out. 

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Click “read more” below to read the exchanges yesterday between the Opposition Leader Marit Stiles and Paul Calandra. The full version is in Hansard here. 

Read more: Discuss: the Ford Government and low ethical standards

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 03 October 2023

Newmarket Today reporter, Joseph Quigley, deserves a round of applause for breaking the story on 30 September 2023 that the Provincial Government would veto a new hospital on the lands in King, owned by developer Michael Rice, that are to be returned to the Greenbelt.

The story was picked up by the Globe and Mail this morning. You can read Jill Mahoney's piece by clicking: "read more" below.

The full story is still to come out.

I want a complete truthful account from all the main players. 

We don't have that yet.

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Read more: From the Globe & Mail: Proposal to build hospital on protected Greenbelt land cancelled

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 02 October 2023

The Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, is currently investigating the conduct of Ryan Amato, the former Chief of Staff to Steve Clark, to ascertain if he acted contrary to the requirements of the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006 with respect to his liaisons with land developers and their representatives.  

This was one of the recommendations made by the Auditor General in her scathing special report on the changes to the Greenbelt. It was accepted by Ford – as were they all – and passed on to the Integrity Commissioner. Which is where it lies.

Did Amato know about the new Southlake?

Despite months of investigations and two coruscating reports from Parliamentary watchdogs, we still do not know if Amato knew about the hospital that was planned for the Bathurst lands. And if he did know, what did he do about it? 

Why is this important? 

If Amato knew Rice (photo right) was proposing a hospital on his Greenbelt land at Bathurst (with the development spilling over onto adjacent lands owned by John Dunlap), surely he, Amato, had a duty to alert the Ministry of Health that a potential benefactor was prepared to gift land to Southlake for a new hospital?

The Integrity Commissioner interviewed the Mayor of King, Steve Pellegrini. 

In paragraph 288 of his report Wake wrote: 

“… the Mayor (of King Township) explained that other lands in the vicinity (of the Bathurst site) had already been discussed as a possible hospital site and that if Mr Rice contributed land from his recently purchased property, he (Mayor Pellegrini) believed it would potentially be a viable option for the hospital and a significant benefit for King Township.”

Pellegrini's "Other lands"

There is little doubt the “other lands” are contiguous with Rice’s Bathurst lands and are owned by former Southlake Board member, John Dunlap, the land agent who facilitated the sale of the Bathurst lands from Bob Schickedanz to Michael Rice. 

The Township of King has no records of having carried out a search for lands that might be suitable for a new hospital and it has no records of any meetings about this by elected officials other than those involving the Mayor. 

The Township’s Official Plan (2019) - which was adopted by Council on 23 September 2019 and approved by York Region on 24 September 2020 - looks ahead to 2031.  The Township explains:

The primary purpose of the Official Plan is to provide direction and to set the planning policy framework for managing growth, land use and infrastructure decisions within the Township to the 2031 planning horizon.

The Official Plan makes no mention of any possible development of the Bathurst lands. 

Rationale

We know from the evidence presented to the Integrity Commissioner that: 

[276] Mr. Rice provided Mr. Amato with a document dated September 27, 2022, with a map outlining the area proposed to be removed from the Greenbelt, a rationale supporting the removal, a summary confirming consultants had been retained to do environmental and servicing assessments and an explanation of various servicing options for the site. 

Rice told the Integrity Commissioner he was sticking with his commitment to make land available for a new hospital and it follows that the bundle of materials he handed over to Amato on 27 or 28 September 2022 would have included a reference to the proposed hospital. A huge project like this would have to be factored into the servicing options for the site.

However, while Rice’s lands were removed from the Greenbelt in December 2022, the adjacent lands owned by John Dunlap retained their designation as prime agricultural land in the Greenbelt’s Protected Countryside. That has always been a mystery to me.  (Land Registry map, right, shows Dunlap's land - Block 3 - and Rice's lands immediately to the north)

It seems Amato was negligent in not mentioning the hospital proposal to his team of civil servants who would have pointed out that the proposed hospital straddled the lands owned by Michael Rice and John Dunlap and that the latter’s lands too should have been removed from the Greenbelt.  

Building on Protected Countryside

Rice, of course, maintains the position that a new hospital and (possibly) ancillary medical facilities and a long-term care home could be built on the Greenbelt’s protected countryside.

I have not seen the material handed over by Rice to Amato on 27/28 September 2022 but we know (from his evidence to the Integrity Commissioner) it included a map outlining the area proposed to be removed from the Greenbelt, the rationale supporting the removal as well as various servicing options to be explored by consultants. 

The rationale must have included references to new housing and to the proposed new hospital. 

The fact that Dunlap’s land was not removed from the Greenbelt in December 2022 at the same time as the Rice lands suggests that Amato

(a) Did not consult the Ministry of Health (who were aware of Southlake’s two-site proposal after the hospital submitted its redevelopment Master Plan on 31 January 2020) or

(b) Believed, like Rice, that a hospital could be built on prime agricultural land in the Greenbelt’s protected countryside.

Negligent

Either way, it appears that Amato was negligent in failing to flag up the hospital proposal which – according to all professional planning opinion -  would have required the removal of Dunlap’s land from the Greenbelt to allow a development to go ahead.

In Amato’s resignation letter he said he had been “unfairly depicted” and suggested he would be vindicated in any investigation. 

“I am confident that I have acted appropriately, and that a fair and complete investigation would reach the same conclusion.”

The Integrity Commissioner should ask Ryan Amato if he knew about the proposed new hospital on the Bathurst lands and, if so, what he did with this information.

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