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Ontario’s finance minister says he has not been contacted by the RCMP in its ongoing Greenbelt investigation but insists he is an “open book” if detectives want to sit down with him.
Last week, Premier Doug Ford’s office said current and former staffers were being interviewed by the Mounties “as witnesses” as the force’s investigation into the government’s decision to remove 7,400 acres of protected land from the Greenbelt gathers pace.
The premier’s office said in a statement on Friday that they intended to assist the RCMP in their investigation from the beginning.
“We’ve always said we would cooperate,” the statement read. “That cooperation would include the premier and current or former staff conducting interviews as witnesses, which are currently underway.”
Later that day, Ford said his government had “nothing to hide” and was trying to move on from the scandal.
“Come in, do whatever you have to do — we’re moving on, but I want full cooperation,” he said of the RCMP investigation.
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Ford has previously committed to waiving cabinet confidentiality if the RCMP asks.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy echoed those sentiments and that he had not yet been contacted by RCMP.
“I’m an open book, as the premier said, nothing to hide,” he told reporters. “They have got to do their job, do your job, and we’re going to continue to execute the promises plan, but no I have not been contacted.”
Premier Ford has also not been interviewed by the RCMP, something a former investigator said is potentially part of a standard process.
“It’s not good practice to walk into a subject interview where the subject could say something and, if you haven’t done the ‘little interviews’ you might not catch a discrepancy or an incontinency,” Bruce Pitt-Payne, a former RCMP major crimes investigator, told Global News.
“You want to have all of (the little interviews) behind you, then you go in and ask the bigger players for their information.”
The investigation was sparked after separate investigations by Ontario’s auditor general and integrity commissioner revealed a rushed, chaotic process to remove land from the Greenbelt that appeared to benefit certain developers.
The auditor general’s investigation revealed those who had had land removed from the Greenbelt could see its value increase by more than $8 billion, also chronicling widespread use of personal emails for government business and direct requests to remove land being sent to the government.
The integrity commissioner found then-housing minister Steve Clark had broken ethics rules and said the Greenbelt process was “marked by misinterpretation, unnecessary hastiness and deception.”
Ontario Provincial Police initially considered looking into the Greenbelt process before kicking it up to the RCMP, who announced an investigation in October 2023. Since then, the force had been silent on its progress until Ford’s office announced interviews had started last week.
Global News’ crime commentator and former Toronto police detective Hank Idsinga said it is not unusual for investigations like this to begin well away from the public gaze.
“An investigation like this is going to be very driven by documents and records — so the important thing is to gather those documents and records first before you embark on those witness interviews,” he said.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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