Lawsuit alleges former Ford staffers promised to use ‘backchannel contacts’ to get land rezoned [Video]

An Ontario property developer alleges two former Ford government staffers — including one at the centre of the Greenbelt scandal — promised to use their influence at Queen’s Park to get several plots of land rezoned.

In exchange for access to their “backchannel contacts and political connections,” the developer would pay the pair through a GTA construction management firm to “make their involvement less transparent,” a statement of claim filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in December alleges.

Both men still worked for Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government when the alleged agreement was made in the summer of 2023.

Details of the lawsuit were first reported by The Trillium this week.

The allegations against Ryan Amato, Shiv Raj and the Frontier Group of Companies, as well as its founder and vice president, have not been tested in court.

A lawyer representing Amato and Raj said the statement of claim contains “false and baseless accusations” and that both men “acted in full …