Greenbelt: Multiple Sources Identify Mysterious “Mr. X” | Greater Toronto: Redrawing the Greenbelt

According to CBC sources, the consultant nicknamed “Mr. X” in a damning report on the Ford government’s management of the Greenbelt is former Clarington Mayor John Mutton. He is suspected of violating the Lobbying Act.

In his report released Wednesday, Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner uses the pseudonym Mr. X to identify one of two consultants hired by real estate developer Peter Tanenbaum to remove one of his properties from conservation lands, which the Ford government recently cut off.

The subject property is an 86-acre lot on Nash Road in the Municipality of Clarington.

According to the report, Mr. X could have earned more than $1 million after fulfilling his contract, which was to have this land removed from the greenbelt and rezoned, so the developer could resell it.

The commissioner says that Mr. X is not on the lobbyist registry, and that he may have violated several aspects of Ontario’s Lobbying Act.

Nico Fidani-Diker, director of the lobbying firm OnPoint Strategy Groupconfirmed that John Mutton worked with him as a consultant on the Nash Road project.

I had no interaction with Mr. Mutton except for that specific file. he told CBC, adding that he was not familiar with the details of Mr. Mutton’s contract with Mr. Tanenbaum.

Two other sources close to the Ford government, who spoke to CBC on condition not to be named, claimed that John Mutton is well Mr. X.

John Mutton denies illegal lobbying

CBC/Radio-Canada was unable to contact John Mutton prior to the publication of this article.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, Mr. Mutton confirmed that he had worked for Mr. Tanenbaum for 17 years, but insisted that it was not as a lobbyist.

I am not a lobbyist. I have a development services company that provides planning, engineering and allhe told the Toronto Star.

I was never hired to do any type of lobbying to get out of greenbelt landhe added.

He told the Toronto Star that he doesn’t know who is Mr. X.

John Mutton served as mayor of Clarington, a small town east of Toronto until 2006.

He also ran to become council chair for the Regional Municipality of Durham in 2018, but was not elected.

The influence of lobbyists under the magnifying glass

Ontario’s Greenbelt is an 800,000 hectare protected area in the Golden Horseshoe. Its goal is to preserve agricultural lands, forests, wetlands and watersheds in this populous region.

The decision of the Ford government to withdraw 3000 hectares from it in November in order to allow the construction of housing there has been bogged down in controversy ever since.

On August 9, a report by the Auditor General of Ontario denounced the undue influence of real estate developers on the selection of lands that would be removed from the protected area.

Three weeks later, a second report, this time by Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner, found that Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark breached the Members’ Integrity Act by not overseeing this process.

It is in this report that Commissioner J. David Wake talks about Mr. X.

A greenbelt premium For Mr. X

Commissioner Wake reported that Nico Fidani-Diker and Mr. X were both hired by promoter Peter Tanenbaum in the fall of 2022.

Both were on a mission to get Mr. Tanenbaum’s land removed from the greenbelt, have their zoning changed to allow construction, and finally get rid of that land.

Under this contract, Mr. X would earn a monthly salary of $6,000.

He would also be entitled to a greenbelt premium $225,000 once the government has permanently removed the land in question from the protected area.

Finally, Mr. X would be entitled to $775,000 once the land is rezoned to the satisfaction of Mr. Tanenbaum’s company.

Commissioner Wake points out that the Lobbying Act also prohibits a lobbyist from being paid according to the degree of success of his activities.

The commissioner also discovered that Mr. X interacted with senior officials from the office of Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark.

Mr. X would have invited these officials to paid dinners, golf games and offered them NBA tickets to see the Toronto Raptors.

The employees questioned by the commissioner said they had not had invitations or that they had refused them, with the exception of a paid dinner attended by Steve Clark’s assistant chief of staff.

Commissioner Wake states in his report that he does not name Mr. Xbecause the latter is not the main subject of the report and was not questioned in the context of its production.

with information from Travis Dhanraj and Patrick Jones, CBC News