Ontario Greenbelt development plans were 'biased': A.G. report

The Ontario government's process for selecting safe greenbelt land for housing development was heavily influenced by a small group of developers with good ties to the government, a new report from Ontario's auditor general has revealed.

A 95-page report released on Wednesday by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk reviewed how the state government chose to exclude 810,000 hectares of farmland, forest and wetlands from the Greenbelt, which stretches from Niagara Falls to Peterborough.

Lysyk explained that the selection process was not controlled by non-partisan public servants but primarily by Housing Minister Steve Clark's chief of staff and was influenced by specific suggestions from developers who had access to the chief of staff.