A former Ford authorities staffer on the centre of the Greenbelt scandal is taking Ontario’s privateness watchdog to courtroom in an try to struggle a authorized order requiring him to be questioned beneath oath about his use of private emails to conduct authorities enterprise.
For almost a 12 months, Ontario’s Info and Privateness Commissioner has been attempting to compel a former senior authorities staffer, who labored for then-housing minister Steve Clark, to show over any private emails associated to the Greenbelt decision-making.
Premier Doug Ford’s November 2022 choice to take away 7,400 acres of protected land from the Greenbelt triggered a scandal after damning investigations from two legislative watchdogs highlighted how builders had been allowed to affect the method over which lands had been eliminated.
Each the auditor normal and the integrity commissioner chronicled the chief of workers’s function in allegedly coping with builders, the premier’s workplace and civil servants as the federal government rushed to open up land for improvement.
The identical probes recommended workers had been utilizing private units to speak important info throughout the decision-making course of, as a substitute of the unique use of official units.
Shortly after, World Information filed a freedom of knowledge request for any Greenbelt-related emails contained in former chief of workers Ryan Amato’s private account — a request that was ultimately appealed in 2023.
Nearly two years later, in spring 2025, the IPC ordered the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to work with Amato to seek out the information. Months later, the transparency watchdog says Amato did not cooperate with its request and issued a subpoena requiring him to attend an interview beneath oath.
Amato, the IPC mentioned, has now requested an Ontario courtroom to intervene and has requested for a judicial assessment of the scenario.
The premier’s workplace mentioned that the federal government had made “a number of formal requests to the affected get together to supply the ministry with any emails related to this matter.”
Amato didn’t reply to a request for remark in time for publication.
In November 2022, amid a housing affordability disaster, the Ford authorities introduced it might take away 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt to spur the event of recent houses.
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The numerous coverage shift was triggered by Premier Ford, who directed his minister of housing to look into Greenbelt land swaps in a post-election mandate letter.
The integrity commissioner and auditor normal discovered the duty was then handed to Amato, who served as chief of workers. The mandate letter kicked off a whirlwind few months by which the federal government rushed by means of the removing of land, which the auditor normal calculated may have benefited builders to the tune of greater than $8 billion.
Throughout her investigation, the auditor normal identified that workers seemed to be routinely utilizing private emails to speak, reasonably than official accounts.
“We famous that political workers acquired emails from lobbyists and different exterior events on their private e-mail accounts that they then forwarded to their authorities e-mail,” the auditor normal wrote in the summertime of 2023.
“Conversely, there have been events when authorities emails had been forwarded by political workers from their authorities accounts to their private e-mail accounts.”
After the auditor normal’s report was printed, World Information filed — after which appealed — a freedom of knowledge request for all communications in Amato’s private account with the phrase “Greenbelt.”
The IPC appeared to reject arguments from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which mentioned it now not had entry to Amato, and issued an order in April for Amato and the federal government to seek for potential emails in his private account.
Request for judicial assessment filed
Months after it ordered one other search to happen, the IPC seems to have misplaced persistence.
In August, the adjudicator overseeing the attraction wrote to Amato, asking him to ship “the knowledge I wanted to finish my inquiry.” In accordance with a letter from the adjudicator, Amato “didn’t present a substantive response.”
Just a few months later, on the finish of October, the adjudicator issued a summons for Amato to be examined beneath oath. The interview was set for December.
The IPC has the ability to compel folks to testify beneath oath, with the identical guidelines as a courtroom of legislation.
In accordance with the IPC’s letter, the December summons was delayed to January. Then, Amato filed for judicial assessment.
“On January 9, 2026, the IPC acquired discover that the affected get together has filed an utility for judicial assessment of the summons,” a part of the IPC letter mentioned.
Private emails and telephone calls
Amato is just not the one Progressive Conservative determine who has confronted questions on utilizing his private system or accounts to speak whereas in authorities.
Earlier this month, a panel of three judges ordered civil servants to acquire Premier Ford’s private cellphone logs to find authorities calls he has made utilizing the system and make them public.
The courtroom ruling, which sided with a separate order from the IPC, discovered Ford was utilizing his private telephone for presidency enterprise, data which must be made public.
Elsewhere, the premier’s chief of workers has used his Gmail account to work on authorities enterprise. He additionally misplaced as much as a 12 months’s value of government-related texts from his private telephone after he returned it to the producer to be wiped.
A date for Amato’s judicial assessment to be heard has not but been set.
© 2026 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
