Premier Doug Ford was seeing red on Tuesday, going after the new Ontario Liberal Party leader on the same topic — personal relationships with developers — that’s dogged him and his government since the summer.
The premier took his shot at Bonnie Crombie in question period, alleging the newly elected leader has been “too busy flying around on the private jet of her buddy, the developer — that everyone knows who this developer is.”
Ford didn’t name the developer then and wouldn’t say afterwards who he was referring to when asked by The Trillium. “That’s your job (to figure it out),” he said.
However, The Trillium received tips about similar rumours from two sources, naming Benny Marotta of Solmar Development Corporation, during the Liberal leadership race.
When asked later on Tuesday about which developer Ford was referring to with his “private jet” comment, Crombie laughed and said, “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
She and Marotta also each said they’ve never taken a private jet flight together.
“I have never been on (a private jet with him) — I’m not even sure he has a private jet — but perhaps he does,” Crombie told reporters at Queen’s Park on Tuesday.
Marotta, who spoke to The Trillium shortly after Ford’s comments, said Crombie has been “a friend” for about 10 years, adding that “she has many friends.”
Asked about Marotta’s claim he’s her personal friend, Crombie replied, “That’s a loose term. We know each other, of course. I know many of them.”
She has visited Marotta’s family’s Niagara Region winery — Two Sisters Vineyards — a number of times that Marotta said he “could count on two hands.”
“I have even brought my mother there,” Crombie said. “She enjoys it as well and many of my colleagues have visited it as well. I know (Marotta) likes to entertain politicians there.”
Marotta has never footed the bill of Crombie’s winery visits, the Ontario Liberal leader said.
Marotta said he’s “never” paid for anything of Crombie’s.
“That would be suicidal for anyone to pay for things,” Marotta said.
Marotta also had some choice words about Ford, friendlier ones about Crombie, and shared some of his opinions about how he and other developers are involved with Ontario politics, and how they’re perceived.
“Doug Ford should analyze himself first and stop being a cowboy,” Marotta said.
He added later: “I think he (Ford) has some kind of inferiority complex.”
“And he (Ford) tries to become popular attacking other people and favouring other people. So, that’s the worst thing that a premier can do.”
Marotta said he felt Ford’s attack on Crombie is an attempt to redirect criticism of himself onto the new Ontario Liberal Party leader “because he’s the one who’s been favouring developers in things that should never happen.”
“Bonnie Crombie — I think she’s one of the most intelligent politicians and (she’s) clean as a whistle,” Marotta added.
Speaking generally about developers, Crombie said “these people are our partners in homebuilding and they are stakeholders.”
“We are not cozy… and we have relationships as we do with all stakeholders,” she added. “There are no personal relationships. They are not friends. They are not invited to my daughter’s wedding shower or her wedding.”
Marotta’s company Solmar Development Corporation, and others within Solmar Homes’s corporate umbrella, have built homes across Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe, including in Mississauga, where Crombie has been mayor since 2014. As mayor, she was involved in a particularly contentious decision concerning the development of Solmar lands in Bolton.
Two Sisters Vineyards is run by Marotta’s daughters, who have also worked in the family’s development business.
The only political donation that Marotta has made that’s benefited a provincial party since 2014, according to Elections Ontario’s database, was to Ford’s 2018 campaign to lead the PC Party.
The premier pounced in the legislature on Tuesday in response to questioning from Liberal MPP Stephanie Bowman about the Ford government’s housing record and Greenbelt scandal, which the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are currently investigating.
“This is a (Liberal) leader that said ‘no’ to removing tolls, ‘no’ to scrapping the licence plate stickers, ‘no’ to cutting taxes,” Ford said.
“You know why? Do you know why? Because their leader was too busy flying around on a private jet, of her buddy, the developer — that everyone knows who this developer is — and it’s going to come back to haunt her.”
Ford also painted Crombie as “out of touch with the average person,” because of the “estate in the Hamptons” she owns.
Crombie does own a home on Long Island in New York, inheriting it from a relative who died. It’s likely not a “$5 million estate” as Ford described it, according to reporting by QP Today. The publication obtained the property records for the house, showing it’s a 2,164-square-foot suburban home in an area — about 57 kilometres away from the borough’s famous Hamptons area — where recent comparable properties sold for $1.1 to $2 million dollars.
Asked about her exchange with Ford after Tuesday’s question period, Bowman said the Liberals “are proud to have her (Crombie) as our new leader.”
The Liberal MPP for Don Valley West also shot back at Ford in defence of Crombie.
“She was not born like Doug Ford was with a silver spoon in her mouth. She's earned everything she has by being a successful business person and a successful politician,” Bowman said.
Crombie said similarly in a response to Ford’s criticisms while she spoke to reporters at Queen’s Park shortly afterwards.
“I have worked very, very hard in my life to achieve everything I have,” she said. “I have earned every single penny. I have been not handed a political dynasty, nor have I been handed a business that has been built up.”
The new Ontario Liberal leader also said Ford and his government are attacking her because “they are flailing (and) they are desperate” ahead of a day in which the provincial auditor general’s office will release its annual report.
Ford went after Crombie on the same day she visited Queen’s Park for her first meeting with the Ontario Liberals’ nine-MPP caucus. She was elected leader of the provincial Liberals on Saturday. She doesn’t hold a provincial seat of her own.
Crombie said she intends to run provincially after she steps down as Mississauga’s mayor, which she said she’ll do after wrapping up the city’s annual budget.
Tuesday wasn’t the first time Crombie faced developer-based attacks.
During the Ontario Liberal leadership race, Crombie’s opponents warned that her record of accepting donations from developers would present an optics problem for the party.
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the runner-up, questioned her decision to accept 10 donations of the maximum amount from executives related to the development and building company HBNG Holborn Group, as was first reported by The Trillium.
"Successful fundraising is a necessary part of our politics. But there should never even be a perception of improper influence, especially as we look to take on Doug Ford's corruption,” Erskine-Smith said at the time. “Integrity is Ford's greatest weakness and it should be our strength.”
Yasir Naqvi, who placed third, referred to her as “Doug Ford lite” and pitched an ethics platform that would ban “bundled” donations, apparently inspired by Crombie’s controversy.
"Bundling, the way we're seeing Doug Ford benefit from, or other individuals, really undermines the public's confidence in our political process, which is damaging to our democracy," Naqvi said at the time.
The Trillium also reported that Crombie accepted $37,200 in donations in her most recent municipal campaign from the province’s most prolific developer donors, including those associated with HBNG Holborn and several developers who stood benefited from the Ford government’s short-lived plan to open parts of the Greenbelt to development — TACC, Fieldgate and the Cortellucci Group.
Also on Tuesday, Ford’s PCs passed a motion to expedite passage of bills to undo its Greenbelt removals and most of the modifications it made to a dozen municipalities’ official plans and set up a legal shield for the government in the event it revokes or changes any development-fast-tracking minister’s zoning orders (MZOs) it’s issued.
In August, two separate provincial watchdogs concluded from parallel investigations that most of the developers who benefited from the Greenbelt changes were able to thanks to their access to specific Ford government staff. They stood to benefit to the tune of $8.3 billion, Ontario’s auditor general estimated, before the premier announced the reversal of the plan.
