Marit Stiles, the leader, wants the integrity commissioner to look into whether or not a paid event broke ethics rules
The Ontario NDP is asking the province’s integrity commissioner to look into whether or not Premier Doug Ford broke ethics rules when it was said that developers with financial interests in government decisions went to his daughter’s bachelor party and wedding.
On Thursday, the complaint was sent to David Wake’s office by the leader of the NDP, Marit Stiles. Stiles said in a letter that went with the official complaint that “concerning details have come to light about developers and lobbyists who were invited to two Ford family events and had political and donor ties to Ford and the Ontario PC Party.”
Stiles said that the complaint has details about “a troubling pattern of ongoing government policy decisions that help the private interests of individuals and developers.”
The NDP said that the supposed new information can’t be made public until Wake decides if he has enough evidence to start an investigation.
Global News was the first to report that developers who are personal friends of the premier and who could benefit from his government’s policies went to his daughter and son-in-law’s $150-per-ticket wedding last summer. Since then, Ford has come under fire. Stag-and-dos are usually held to raise money for a couple who is getting married.
Then, this morning, the Toronto Star reported that some of the guests at his daughter’s wedding included prominent developers, provincial appointees, and a lobbyist for a company that wants more development in the Greenbelt. Some of these guests shared a table with Ford himself.
Ford’s relationship with developers has come under scrutiny after the province said in November that it would remove about 7,400 acres from 15 protected areas of the Greenbelt and add more parcels elsewhere so that 50,000 homes could be built.
Some of the land that the government is making available for development is owned by big developers who have given money to the PC party.
Ford has denied doing anything wrong and said that his family has nothing to do with politics. He has called questions about family events “ridiculous” when asked about them over and over again.
Late last year, when a reporter started asking about the events, about five months after the stag-and-doe, Ford went to the integrity commissioner and told him what he did. Wake figured out from this that Ford didn’t know about the gifts given to his daughter and son-in-law and that there was no talk about government business at the summer party.
Ford wasn’t in the legislature today to answer Stiles’s questions, but House Leader for the government, Paul Calandra, says that Stiles’s complaint is a “drive-by smear.”