A former aide to Ontario Premier Doug Ford violated lobbying rules, according to the province's integrity commissioner. A Greenbelt sign is shown surrounded by farm land near Caledon, Ont., on Oct. 12, 2023.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
A lobbyist and former aide to Ontario Premier Doug Ford broke the law by failing to properly disclose his efforts to get clients’ lands removed from the protected Greenbelt, approaching government officials with whom he was friends, and offering up hockey tickets, the province’s ethics watchdog has found.
The Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario posted a brief summary on its website on Monday naming Nico Fidani-Diker, Mr. Ford’s former executive assistant, for violating the Lobbyists Registration Act in 2022 and 2023.
But outgoing integrity commissioner J. David Wake, who retired in February after completing this investigation into Mr. Fidani-Diker, recommended no further sanction, beyond the publication of the report. His office has the power to impose a ban of up to two years on lobbyists who break the rules.
In a separate, scathing 2023 report by Mr. Wake on his investigation into the government’s attempt to change the Greenbelt’s boundaries, Mr. Fidani-Diker was identified as a lobbyist for landowners who sought to have their properties removed from the protected area.
After the release of that report, and an investigation from the province’s Auditor-General concluding that the hastily arranged Greenbelt removals would have granted a handful of connected developers an $8.3-billion windfall in increased land values, Mr. Ford apologized and rescinded the plan. The RCMP have since launched a criminal investigation. The Greenbelt controversy rocked Mr. Ford’s government, but did not prevent it from winning a third term in a snap election called by the Premier this winter.
The brief summary document released on Monday does not include names other than Mr. Fidani-Diker’s or identify the properties related to the findings. It says he violated the rules in 2022-23 by lobbying a “public office holder” with whom he had a “prior close working relationship” and “had recently engaged in significant political work,” characterizing them as friends.
Mr. Fidani-Diker was Mr. Ford’s executive assistant from 2018 to 2020. In 2021, he became manager of stakeholder relations and development for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, in advance of the 2022 election. He launched a lobbying business, ONpoint Strategy Group, around July, 2022. He also worked for the Premier’s brother Rob Ford when he was mayor of Toronto, and he told the Integrity Commissioner during the Greenbelt probe that his family and the Fords were friends.
He attended the stag and doe and the wedding of Mr. Ford’s daughter in August, 2022, which generated controversy after it emerged that prominent developers who benefited from actions by the Ford government were among the guests. (The Integrity Commissioner concluded in September, 2023, that he had “insufficient evidence” to warrant an investigation of the wedding and prewedding events.)
In a statement provided to The Globe and Mail, Mr. Fidani-Diker said the findings were “regarding my initial months as a registered lobbyist, when setting up my company three years ago.”
“It was never my intent to be in non-compliance while lobbying. These oversights were mine and mine alone,” the statement reads.
Mr. Fidani-Diker said that since 2022, his firm has “instituted strict internal compliance on all registerable activities and have maintained a strong record – free of any issues outside of these events – and we will continue to do so.”
Grace Lee, a spokeswoman for the Premier, declined to answer whether Mr. Ford was one of the unnamed public office holders mentioned in the summary released on Monday, or to provide any other information. In a statement, she said the Premier’s Office expects lobbyists to follow the rules.
The Integrity Commissioner’s summary posted on Monday says that in one case in 2022, Mr. Fidani-Diker failed to register as required by law after lobbying on behalf of a client seeking to have Greenbelt lands removed. In another case, he failed to “provide particulars” to identify that a client was also seeking a Greenbelt removal.
In a third case, he failed to disclose that he was seeking a minister’s zoning order, which is used to override normal local planning procedures, in this case to allow for taller buildings and more density on a property.
The summary says that Mr. Fidani-Diker contravened lobbying rules by “knowingly placing two public office holders in a position of real or potential conflict of interest by offering them a gift of tickets to a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game.”
And he again broke the rules by “knowingly placing a public office holder in a position of real or potential conflict of interest” because he has “a long history of a close relationship with this public office holder, including significant personal, work and political connections.”
On Monday, opposition leaders at Queen’s Park repeated long-standing calls, which have also come from Mr. Wake himself, to tighten lobbying legislation. Both Opposition NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said Mr. Fidani-Diker should face a stiffer penalty for breaking the law.
Ms. Crombie said the entire report on the lobbyist, not just a summary, should be released, in the case of what she called a “serious ethics breach.” Ms. Stiles, who originated the complaint to the Integrity Commissioner in 2022 about the Greenbelt plan, told reporters she would be writing to the watchdog’s office to demand that it release the identities of the unnamed “public office holders” in the summary.
“It’s ridiculous that this person can continue to lobby,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park. “I mean frankly there needs to be teeth in this. He should be barred from any lobbying of this government going forward.”
Mr. Fidani-Diker has continued to lobby for major developers, according to Ontario’s online lobbyist registry, including for clients who either attempted or briefly succeeded in having Greenbelt properties removed in 2022.
Since 2023, the Office of the Integrity Commissioner has also been investigating a complaint about alleged lobbying violations related to Atlas Strategic Advisors, the firm of another former senior Ford aide, Amin Massoudi. Mr. Massoudi has previously denied any wrongdoing. He did not immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment on Monday.
The Integrity Commissioner’s 2023 Greenbelt report looked at the government’s move to allow housing on select parcels of the protected area and detailed efforts made by Mr. Fidani-Diker and some other lobbyists to have their land chosen.
The report concluded that then-minister of municipal affairs and housing Steve Clark had broken ethics rules by failing to supervise a “chaotic” process by a senior political staffer, Ryan Amato, to select lands for removal. Mr. Clark would later resign as minister, and Mr. Amato also quit his post.