How Premier Doug Ford's self-described friend got land removed from the Greenbelt

Over 11 days last fall, lawyers from Dentons law firm emailed the Ontario housing minister's most senior political staffer to request that protected land owned by three separate developers northeast of Toronto be opened up for development.

Dentons sent letters on behalf of Flato Developments, Orca Equity, and Wyview Group, which owned Greenbelt land in Markham, Ont., and Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ont. 

The letters arrived right when Ryan Amato — chief of staff to housing minister Steve Clark before the Greenbelt scandal prompted both to resign — began identifying specific sites to build new housing on the 810,000-hectare area of farmland, forest and wetland that surrounds the Greater Toronto Area, created to protect ecologically-sensitive land from disappearing to urban sprawl.

All three of those removal requests came from Shakir Rehmatullah, a self-described friend of Premier Doug Ford, Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake's Aug. 30 report found. The letters arrived weeks after Rehmatullah was a guest at Ford's daughter's stag-and-doe and wedding last summer. 

Rehmatullah also owns Flato Developments, which builds single family homes, lowrises and condos. According to his company website, Rehmatullah learned architectural engineering from the University of Miami, while his passion for building houses comes from his family. "I learned from my father and grandfather that building homes isn't just about creating shelter, but about creating vibrant communities," he is quoted as saying. 

Rehmatullah didn't respond to an interview request or a list of questions sent to Flato Developments.

That leaves one question — the primary question the integrity commissioner was seeking to answer — unanswered: how did a Ford-connected developer know to submit his removal requests at such an opportune time?

"We still don't know how the information got from Amato to Rehmatullah," said Ian Stedman, a former employee of the integrity commissioner's office.

"That signals that there's still potential for preferential treatment somewhere here that just hasn't been located yet," said Stedman, an assistant professor of public policy and administration at York University who worked in the integrity commissioner's office from 2011 to 2014.  

In the weeks since Wake released his report, both Amato and Clark have resigned and Ford has announced plans for a full Greenbelt review. But the government's reputation appears to have taken a hit. An Angus Reid Institute poll released last week put Ford's approval rating at 28 per cent — down five points since June and the lowest since Ford was first elected in 2018. 

Stedman said he's watching to see whether the answer might come from a subsequent integrity commissioner investigation. 

"It hasn't been located yet, as far as I can tell, because Commissioner Wake doesn't have jurisdiction to dig in the places he thinks he needs to dig in the context of this report," Stedman said. 

NDP Leader Marit Stiles requested an investigation into whether Ford violated ethics rules when developers reportedly attended his daughter's "stag-and-doe" and wedding. The commissioner's office said "this request remains under consideration" but that it will issue a report, regardless, as is legally required. 

"I am…. hopeful that when we get the wedding report there will be more information about Rehmatullah and, you know, conversations had at the wedding," Stedman said.