Doug Ford vows plans to develop parts of the Greenbelt will go ahead as Ontario’s growing population needs housing.

As for Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk’s finding that the process was biased and favoured some developers, the premier dismisses such talk.

”First of all I disagree with preferential treatment.  No one had preferential treatment,” says the premier.

Local planners in the three regions where the land was removed, as well as the province’s housing task force said that land’s not required to meeting housing construction targets.

But both the housing minister and premier point out the report is 19-months old.

The Integrity Commissioner is reviewing the role  housing minister chief of staff Ryan Amato played in selecting which lands in the Greenbelt would be approved for development.

The Auditor-General says Amato told her that he received packages from two prominent developers at a conference dinner last September.

They included proposals to build homes on protected Greenbelt land owned by the developers.

However, Amato told the A-G he did not tell them that the province would open up the Greenbelt.

Bonnie Lysyk says the developers, who had access to Amato at that dinner, ended up with nearly all of the land that was eventually removed from the Greenbelt.