Latest news with #IntegrityCommissioner
CBC
a day ago
- Politics
- CBC
Proposal to suspend work of Vancouver's integrity commissioner quietly fizzles out
Social Sharing A year-long controversy at Vancouver City Hall has ended not with a bang, but with a procedural ruling on a point of order. "This motion would be frivolous, and is out of order," read Mayor Ken Sim at council on Tuesday morning, dismissing an amendment to Vancouver's code of conduct that would have temporarily suspended Integrity Commissioner Lisa Southern's ability to investigate complaints against the mayor and council. "Basically, we can just carry on." The motion was brought forward last July by ABC Vancouver councillors, who argued an external review and temporary suspension of investigations would allow for more clarity around the Office of the Integrity Commissioner. But the debate became paralyzed and acrimonious due to code-of-conduct investigations prompted by accusations from various members of council and park board against each other, and allegations that councillors were trying to silence the body in charge of investigating them. WATCH | Debate over integrity commissioner ends: Vancouver council ends debate over integrity commissioner 10 hours ago Duration 3:01 The debate over Vancouver city hall's independent watchdog has ended, at least for now. Last summer, council proposed suspending the work of its integrity commissioner. But while the matter was finally put to rest, the issue is likely to be brought back up by the province soon. CBC's Justin McElroy reports. Over the last 11 months, the vote for a suspension of investigations was delayed four times. During that time an external investigation into the office — which recommended more independence from council — was launched and concluded. "It has been a lot of wasted resources and time to get to this point," said Coun. Pete Fry. Vancouver's Mayor Office said they considered the matter closed. In a statement, Southern said she looked forward to continuing her work, while noting she has endorsed the city hiring her replacement before her term ends in December. "Throughout the past three and a half years, I have remained committed to carrying out my responsibilities impartially and diligently, and I am proud of the work my office has done in service of council and the public," she wrote. "I look forward to supporting a smooth and professional transition over the coming months." 'It's somewhat toothless' While Vancouver's debate over how to resolve code-of-conduct disputes has subsided, the province is deciding how future investigations into local politicians should be conducted amid frustrations over a number of feuding city councils across the province. Fry said he supported Vancouver continuing to have its own integrity commissioner, but said the province could create mechanisms to protect the office and allow for binding punishments, neither of which exist at the moment. "We need a little bit more enforcement with some of these rulings when it comes to breaches of our oath of office, or code of conduct," he said. "The integrity commissioner doesn't have the ability under the Vancouver Charter to impose any sanctions. So in many respects, it's somewhat toothless." It was a point underlined by Reece Harding, Surrey's first ethics commissioner, who has been hired for code-of-conduct investigations in multiple municipalities. "[In B.C.], there's nothing really that dictates how decision-makers are put in place, clarity around process, clarity around sanctions and remedies," Harding said. "And so it's a bit of a free-for-all out there." What model to take? Each province that has tackled the issue has come up with slightly different solutions. Ontario recently passed legislation that standardizes municipal codes of conduct across the province, and allows for mayors and councillors in serious violation of the code to be removed from office, but only if the province's own integrity commissioner agrees and it gets a unanimous vote from council. Last year, New Brunswick created the Local Governance Commission, which can take complaints if people are not satisfied with internal investigations. It has the power to suspend local politicians or appoint supervisors, which it did two months ago in Strait Shores. Alberta has gone in the opposite direction, eliminating municipal codes of conduct while suggesting a separate ethics commissioner could be appointed. "There will be circumstances where it seems reasonable to me that the province needs to have a bigger stick," Harding said. He added that whatever system is enacted should stop situations where municipalities spend months or years investigating themselves with no resolution. "Clear process, clear remedies and a role for the provincial government where the local jurisdiction has become frozen and can't get themselves out of that frozen ice mask," he said.
Globe and Mail
16-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Former top Ford aide sanctioned by Ontario's ethics watchdog for breaking lobbying rules
An investigation by Ontario's ethics watchdog has found that a former top aide to Premier Doug Ford violated lobbying rules more than two years ago. According to a notice on the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario website posted Thursday, Amin Massoudi failed to register when he lobbied a public office holder about a client's request during a phone call. Mr. Massoudi knowingly placed the person in a position of potential conflict of interest, Integrity Commissioner Cathryn Motherwell's office said, because Mr. Massoudi had offered the public office holder a ticket to a Toronto Raptors basketball game the previous day. The Integrity Commissioner did not name the client or the public office holder, or say what the request involved. The office said the notice it posted online – which includes Mr. Massoudi's name and a brief description of what they found – is his sanction for violating the Lobbyists Registration Act, with no further penalty indicated. Mr. Massoudi said in a statement to The Globe and Mail that the finding relates to a phone call with a mid-level staff member in a minister's office in January, 2023. 'During that conversation, a topic related to an economic development file came up. I immediately informed the staff member that I was not registered on the file and indicated that a colleague, who was appropriately registered, would follow up. At the time, I believed this to be the appropriate way to handle the situation,' he said. Mr. Massoudi declined to identify the staff member. 'I take compliance with all relevant legislation extremely seriously. Over the last two years, I have taken concrete steps to strengthen internal compliance protocols and ensure nothing like this happens again,' Mr. Massoudi said, calling the experience 'an invaluable learning opportunity.' Mr. Massoudi, who now runs a consulting firm, served as Mr. Ford's principal secretary from June, 2019, to late August, 2022. He was named in a 2023 integrity commissioner report on an investigation into the government's decision to allow developers to build housing on parts of the province's protected Greenbelt. Mr. Massoudi was singled out for his role in a 2020 vacation in Las Vegas that has prompted the resignations of cabinet minister Kaleed Rasheed and another senior aide to the Premier, Jae Truesdell. The trio had stayed at the same hotel as prominent Toronto-area developer Shakir Rehmatullah, who has benefited both from special fast-track zoning orders issued by the government and stood to gain from its now-reversed decision to swap lands out of the protected Greenbelt area for housing. The Ford government's decision to open up the Greenbelt is now under investigation by the RCMP. Mr. Massoudi, after leaving the Premier's Office in 2022, kept working for the Progressive Conservative caucus on a $237,000 contract that ended in September, 2023. Hannah Jensen, a spokesperson for Mr. Ford, said the Premier's Office has not been engaged in the recent matter relating to Mr. Massoudi and has no details beyond what the integrity commissioner reported. 'We expect that anyone engaging with or advocating to the government complies with all rules and regulations as set out in legislation,' she said in a statement. In recent weeks, the integrity commissioner's office has found several breaches of the lobbying rules related to the Greenbelt. John Mutton, a consultant and former mayor of Clarington, Ont., who was identified in the 2023 report only as 'Mr. X,' was handed the province's first-ever lobbying ban last month after the integrity commissioner ruled he broke the law numerous times. He is banned from lobbying until April 17, 2027.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
MPP calls on integrity commissioner to probe Premier Ford and ministers over Dresden, Ont., landfill project
Social Sharing Ontario's integrity commissioner is being asked to investigate the alleged connection of Premier Doug Ford, two of his cabinet members, and a former minister to a proposed landfill in Dresden, Ont. Liberal MPP for Kingston and the Islands Ted Hsu called for the investigation in a May 9 letter in which he claimed there's reasonable and probable grounds to believe that Ford and the trio may have contravened the Members' Integrity Act. The complaint comes in wake of a report in The Trillium that found the owners of the landfill property, and others connected to them, made significant donations to the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. In addition to Ford, Hsu said former minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Andrea Khanjin, current minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Todd McCarthy, and Minister of Energy and Mines Stephen Lecce "may have contravened the Act or breached parliamentary convention" in relation to decisions surrounding the Dresden landfill site. "These ministers are named in this request because Premier Doug Ford attended PC Party fundraisers closely aligned with key regulatory decisions on the landfill and is directly connected to donors with a financial stake in the project," Hsu wrote in the letter. "Andrea Khanjin, as then Minister of Environment, announced the comprehensive environmental assessment (EA) that appeared to stall the project just prior to a byelection. Todd McCarthy, her successor, is now leading the government's effort to cancel the EA through legislation, a reversal that would benefit the landfill's owners. "Stephen Lecce, as minister of energy and mines, formally introduced Bill 5, which includes a provision exempting the Dresden landfill from the EA process despite significant local opposition and no comparable exemptions for other landfills," reads the letter. According to Hsu, each of the ministers named in the letter "played a role in a sequence of events that appears to favour a politically connected group of developers and major Progressive Conservative Party donors. The circumstances raise serious concerns about whether political donations, lobbying relationships, and insider connections may have unduly influenced the exercise of public authority." Hsu said the basis for his request relates to a sequence of events in 2024–2025 involving: "Substantial political donations" from developers and executives with a direct financial stake in the Dresden landfill. The premier's participation in political fundraisers held shortly after an environmental assessment was announced for the site. The subsequent introduction of legislation (Bill 5) that would cancel that assessment and benefit those same donors. Project will still undergo extensive environmental processes: premier's office A spokesperson for the premier said the Dresden landfill is needed to reduce reliance on international systems for waste disposal. "Ontario exports nearly 40 per cent of its waste to the United States and it is anticipated our landfills, as they stand, will be full within the next decade," Hannah Jensen wrote in an email to CBC News. "The [Dresden] waste project ... is the landfill that can mobilize the quickest to increase internal waste management capacity to ensure long-term stability and reduce reliance on international systems, as it already has waste permissions and is not considered a new landfill. "We have been clear, the project will still undergo extensive environmental processes and remain subject to strong provincial oversight and other regulatory requirements, including Environmental Compliance Approvals (ECA) under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA)." The premier's office did not respond to the allegations made in Hsu's letter. CBC News has also reached out to the offices of McCarthy and Lecce for comment. The integrity commission has confirmed receipt of Hsu's letter, which it says is under review. Meanwhile, Ontario Liberal MPPs on Monday echoed calls for an investigation into the cancellation of the environmental assessment. The party accused the Ford government of breaking a promise to Dresden residents by reneging on its commitment for a full environmental assessment of the landfill proposal. The Liberal party said donations to the PCs since 2018 from those connected with the property are pegged at around $200,000, a figure contained in the Trillium report. "When developers who donate $200,000 to the premier's party get exemptions from environmental review, something is deeply broken in how this government is doing business," said Ontario Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie, in a news release. CBC News has not independently verified the donation figures. "Real integrity means standing by your word, not burying broken promises in legislation to protect political friends. Doug Ford made a promise to win votes during a byelection in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. He then broke that promise the moment it became politically convenient. He doesn't care to listen to rural voices, unless it benefits him."
