Greenbelt, mandate letter emails unearthed on Ford government staffers personal accounts [Video]

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.”