Developer demands delay in records reporting to province
Developer TACC Group funded Ford, holds former Greenbelt land
It looks like we could be headed toward a Greenbelt showdown between Ontario’s auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, and a prominent GTA developer.
The AG has summoned Silvio De Gasperis, president of the TACC Group of companies, which just happen to own large parcels of land within the areas that the Ford government has removed from the Greenbelt.
As previously noted, the TACC Group has made significant contributions to Ford’s PC Party and the AG wants documents and information about how and when the TACC Group acquired the land.
Not surprisingly, the TACC Group has lawyered up and asked that the Auditor General’s investigation be stopped or at least delayed, claiming that the TACC Group doesn’t have the information that the auditor general is requesting.
So, we’re supposed to believe that a multi-billion dollar development operation like TACC doesn’t have records of those specific land acquisitions?
We’ll pause here for other developers and their lawyers to roll their eyes in disbelief!
The TACC request for a delay is strategic in a very sinister way: The auditor general’s term of office will soon come to an end and the thinking appears to be that if the TACC lawyers can rag the puck until Lysyk steps down, a new AG might just dismiss the entire investigation and these developers and, for that matter, Doug Ford will escape the consequences of a blatant abuse of power.
The people of Ontario deserve better.