RCMP interviews ‘currently underway’ in Ford government Greenbelt probe

Officers with the RCMP have begun interviewing people who work or have worked in Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office, the government says, as a police investigation into the government’s Greenbelt land swap gathers pace.

The premier’s office said in a statement Friday that they had “always said we would cooperate” with the RCMP’s investigation into the land swap of the environmentally-protected lands.

“That cooperation would include the premier and current or former staff conducting interviews as witnesses, which are currently underway,” a spokesperson for Ford’s office said.

The RCMP’s investigation was triggered after two watchdog reports last summer into the Ford government’s decision to remove 7,400 acres of protected land from the Greenbelt and allow homes to be built there.

Reports from the auditor general and the integrity commissioner raised concerns about how the decision would benefit some developers and how the chaotic internal process had been conducted.

The Ontario Provincial Police, which initially opened up a file on the Greenbelt, kicked up the investigation to the RCMP, citing a desire to avoid a perception of conflict of interest.

Ford told reporters in Thunder Bay on Friday his government has “nothing to hide.”

“I’ve always said we’re cooperating with them. We have nothing to hide, come in and do whatever you have to do,” he said.

“I want full cooperation, they know that because there’s nothing to hide there. Let’s get going on it.”

The auditor general’s investigation, published exactly one year ago on Friday, found that certain developers may have received “preferential treatment” as the government worked to open up parts of the Greenbelt.

Her report, followed by a similarly stinging investigation from the