Ministerial zoning orders are now under the auditor general’s microscope.
Acting auditor general Nick Stavropoulos told the NDP his office started looking into the “province’s process for selecting and approving minister’s zoning orders” and informed the government of that on Aug. 30.
It appears to have been one of the last acts of former Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, whose term ended in early September.
Minister’s zoning orders (MZOs) are a tool the province uses to bypass local planning processes to expedite development with no avenue for appeal. The Ford government has come under fire for using the once-rarely deployed power to reward donors and political allies.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles requested the office look into MZOs, urban boundary expansions, and other land use planning decisions in a Sept. 28 letter.
Stavropoulos said he “will consider” the other issues raised in Stiles’ letter.
Liberal MPP Stephen Blais also requested an audit of the Ottawa urban boundary expansion. Stavropoulos told Blaid he’d consider it in an Oct. 6 letter.
“I am pleased to see the auditor general launch an audit into the way Ford’s government selects and approves MZOs in this province, and I welcome the eventual report that will help shine light on this process," Stiles said in a statement.
Ford's Tories have handed out upwards of 100 MZOs since being elected — far more than any previous provincial government.
After former housing minister Steve Clark resigned over his role in the Greenbelt scandal, new Housing Minister Paul Calandra promised the government would reform its approach to MZOs.
"I want to be able to restrict the transfer or sale of lands and make this retroactive to 2018" so developers have to actually build once they get an MZO, Calandra said on Sept. 7.
"When we issue an MZO it is expected that MZO is used to help us gain ground on building those 1.5 million homes. That's what they are issued for," he said.
It's not clear when the audit will be released. The auditor general's annual reports usually come out in late November or early December. An MZO-focused audit is not listed among the topics it’ll be releasing reports on in its annual batch this year.
The auditor general also sometimes publishes special reports at other times during the year, as it did on Aug. 9 with its Greenbelt investigation.
The MZO audit won't be included in the 2023 annual reports, according to a spokesperson for the office.
This story was updated after publication to include comment from the auditor general's office
