Greenbelt, mandate letter emails unearthed on Ford government staffers' personal accounts
Multiple former Ford government staffers have turned over emails from their personal accounts relating to the Greenbelt and drafting mandate letters, Global News has learned, after the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered them to search their accounts for communications relating to official government business.
Among the staffers to discover emails which they had previously failed to disclose was the former executive assistant to Premier Doug Ford, who handed officials an email he received from a developer relating to the Greenbelt.
The emails, turned over to the Ontario NDP as part of a freedom of information appeal, reveal that a developer thanked Ford's executive assistant for 'taking the time to further assist' with their 'Greenbelt glitch.'
The email was sent on July 4, 2022, just days after then-housing minister Steve Clark was issued a mandate letter in which Ford instructed him to 'codify processes for swaps, expansions, contractions and policy updates for the Greenbelt.'
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A spokesperson for the premier's office defended the discovery of the emails.
'At the request of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and out of an abundance of caution, our office contacted former staff members to confirm any records they may have had on personal accounts,' they said.
'Draft Records related to the broad policy proposal were created during a transition period immediately following the election. Final versions of those records have been previously identified in this request, and relevant portions have been released publicly.'
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles suggested the use of personal accounts was a deliberate strategy to conceal communications.
'What we've found is increasingly there's a pattern of the government, top political staffers in the premier's office, actually making it very difficult, hiding information, emails in private accounts as a way to get around the laws that clearly say people have a right to know,' she said.
'What's shocking is the extent to which they've tried to hide this.'
Greenbelt glitch email
One of the emails held on a personal account pertained to Sergio Manchia, the principal of Urbancore Developments.
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He had, for the better part of 20 years, been lobbying the province to remove a four-hectare piece of land in Hamilton from the Greenbelt.
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In the summer of 2022, however, the effort to convert the property into residential land took on renewed urgency when Manchia and his colleagues learned the Ford government was considering changes to the Greenbelt.
'I do recall we were anticipating an announcement,' Manchia told Ontario's integrity commissioner during the office's Greenbelt investigation.
As word of the impending land removals began to spread, Manchia emailed two members of Ford's office on July 4 and 5, 2022: Ford's then-executive assistant and the then-executive director of stakeholder relations.
Both were contacted by Manchia using their private email addresses.
'Thank you for taking the time to further assist us along with respect to our 4 ha Greenbelt 'glitch' that we have been working along with the City of Hamilton, with Province now for some time,' Manchia said in the first email.
'As per our discussion, I wanted to send you some mapping that might just help when describing what I was trying to explain,' Manchia said in a second email about his Greenbelt property in Hamilton.
In one email, Manchia thanks the two Ford staffers and asks them to 'please advise our next steps.'
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Weeks after those emails, according to the integrity commissioner's report, Manchia and his team participated in phone calls with senior staff in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. They eventually took part in in-person meetings to directly discuss the property.
Manchia then purchased four tickets to a stag and doe wedding fundraiser held in the Ford family backyard in August of 2022 — an event attended by other individuals connected to the Greenbelt scandal, according to information made public by the integrity commissioner.
Ford told the integrity commissioner that he had no recollection of meeting Manchia or having any conversations about the Greenbelt property.
'The sole record relating to a specific property was sent to an individual with no involvement in this file related to a proposal for removal that had long-standing support from the local municipality, including a letter from the then-mayor of Hamilton and a council resolution,' the premier's office said.
Manchia did not respond to questions from Global News ahead of publication.
Private email used to draft mandate letters
The Greenbelt email wasn't the only government communication held on the personal email accounts of former staffers.
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In fact, a small tranche of documents was handed over to the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) after 15 former members of the premier's office were ordered to search their private email accounts and devices to look for Greenbelt-related records.
'Seventeen records have been located,' the IPC said in a letter sent to the NDP and shared with Global News.
Among the records were 16 'draft versions' of the 2022 mandate letters Ford would eventually give his cabinet ministers, outlining the direction and expectations as crafted by the premier's office.
The records included 'draft versions of slides' and the 'final slide deck' of mandate letters — official government records that were being drafted on private email servers.
The emails located by former staffers relate to the Greenbelt in some way; it is not clear if other government emails were also contained on those accounts unrelated to the Greenbelt.
The premier's office said all 15 staff did not locate records but did not answer how many had ended up finding messages.
The Manchia emails, the IPC said, were 'located by a former premier's office staff member in his personal email account.'
The staffer claimed he 'did not recall receiving the emails' and 'does not know how the developer had obtained his personal email account.'
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The IPC's office added that the staffer said that he didn't solicit, respond to or forward the emails.
'The staff member has also confirmed that he did not have any discussions or communications with the developer or anyone on the developer's behalf about the emails nor the subject matter of the emails,' the IPC's office said.
A 'pattern' of personal devices
The revelations unearthed by the NDP are the latest in a series of instances where staff in the Ford government appear to be using personal phones and email accounts to communicate.
At the end of last year, Premier Ford was ordered to hand over records from his personal device, which the IPC said he was likely using to do government business. The province is currently appealing that ruling, seeking a judicial review.
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'I think it is absolutely a deliberate pattern where this government is trying to hide from the law,' Stiles said. 'We have an RCMP criminal investigation underway, I am sure we will see something come from that eventually. But in the meantime, Ontarians have a right to know exactly what happened here.'
Elsewhere, Ford's chief of staff lost months' worth of government-related texts on his personal phone and has used his Gmail account to plan government policy.
'These are the very top political staff inside the premier's office,' Stiles said. 'There's no way the premier didn't know what was going on.'
The former housing minister's chief of staff has also been ordered to search his personal account for Greenbelt-related emails. He must either hand them over or sign a sworn affidavit saying they do not exist.
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