Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Housing Minister Steve Clark address the media following the release of the Auditor General's report on the Greenbelt, August 9, 2023

The Premier says he will take responsibility for the process but has no plans to replace his housing minister.

Opposition leaders say Steve Clark should step down or be removed from office in light of an Auditor General’s report into the Greenbelt in southern Ontario.

The audit found the lands removed for housing development were not needed to meet the government’s housing targets.

It also revealed that political staff had substantial control over the entire process.

Clark’s Chief of Staff provided 21 of 22 recommendations for lands to be removed from the Greenbelt.

Fourteen of the Chief of Staff’s recommendations were ultimately approved by cabinet.

The Auditor General also noted that information regarding 4,900 acres of land later removed was provided by two developers to the Chief of Staff during a September 2022 industry function.

In response to the report, Premier Doug Ford says they could have had a better process.

“As Premier, the buck stops with me, and I take full responsibility for the need for a better process. That’s why we support and will implement 14 of the report’s 15 recommendations,” says Ford.

Clark is also committed to improving the process.

“I acknowledge the recommendations in the Auditor General’s Report that indicate that we need to make some changes. I respect that. I agree with those recommendations, and I will implement them,” says Clark.

Neither Ford nor Clark indicated that Clark’s Chief of Staff had been let go.

The Premier’s Office has since requested the Integrity Commissioner to investigate the role the Chief of Staff had.

A spokesperson says the request is under review.

The opposition leaders continue to press for Clark’s removal as housing minister.

“I am shocked, and I think people in this province should be shocked that the minister did not resign or that the Premier of this province did not force him to resign. I have been myself, worked in policy, have been around politics and government for 30 years. I cannot remember a situation like this where at least a minister didn’t resign,” says NDP leader Marit Stiles.

“It is outrageous that they would accept what amounts to, I mean, a rigging of the system to benefit these guys, to make 8.3 billion. We cannot let this become normal in this province.”

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser disputes the Premier and Clark’s claims they were unaware of what was taking place.

“A few well-positioned insiders influenced the government to make decisions that made those insiders even richer. That’s wrong. That’s not right in a democracy. That’s not how government works. And for the Premier and the minister to talk about a process which the Auditor General says didn’t even exist. Right. It was more of an exercise. There is no way, there is no way on God’s green earth that the minister and the Premier did not know what’s going on,” says Fraser.

The opposition leaders want the province to freeze all development on the lands involved.