Canada’s prime minister has weighed in on the Greenbelt land scandal in Ontario while taking reporters’ questions during his government’s cabinet retreat in PEI.

Earlier Wednesday, we learned the OPP has referred to the RCMP whether to launch a criminal investigation into the Greenbelt land swap, citing potential perceived conflict of interest.

“I’m not going to comment on decisions that police agencies make in terms of their investigations,” Justin Trudeau explained, “I’ll refer you to the RCMP for any comments and questions you want about this issue.”

But Justin Trudeau did talk about the need to keep sensitive land protected and not used for housing.

“We see densification, we see proper partnerships with municipalities across provinces as being essential to do that. We don’t think that the only solution is to build on protected land,” Trudeau said.

The prime minister’s comments not only follow the RCMP taking up the Greenbelt development issue, but the resignation of the chief of staff for Ontario’s Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark.

Since Trudeau made his comments on Wednesday morning, the RCMP released a statement saying it has started to look into a potential investigation related to the (Ontario) Progressive Conservative government’s removal of some areas from the protected Greenbelt lands for housing development.

The RCMP now confirms that it is beginning an “evaluation of the available information” as referred by the OPP and after conducting a full assessment, the Mounties will determine whether to launch an investigation.