Mr. X and his MZOs: The Greenbelt consultant has claimed credit for getting special zoning for developers. Now one of his clients is looking to resell the land for a big profit

“I’d have to say on the rezoning end first,” Mutton says, adding: “Most developers that I know don’t build.”

One developer Mutton worked with, for whom the consultant helped secure from the province a special Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) meant to accelerate development, recently put his land up for sale. Without any significant progress made toward the planned commercial area, developer Sam Ganni was last week asking for $18.9 million for the vacant, 70-acre property — more than 14 times what he paid for it in 2017.

The listing was taken down after the Star sent Ganni questions, to which he did not respond. It’s not clear if the land is still for sale. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing says it’s “prepared to revoke any MZO that does not get shovels in the ground.”

MZOs can skyrocket a land’s value

The Ontario government’s developer-friendly approach to planning policy has ensnared it in scandal, prompting a beleaguered Premier Doug Ford last week to scrap his controversial Greenbelt land swap.

The 70-acre plot in Cavan Monaghan, just outside of Peterborough, is the latest instance of a developer apparently trying to resell a property after getting a special zoning order intended to fast-track the building of new homes and businesses.

MZOs have proliferated under the Ford government. With the stroke of a pen, developers can bypass lengthy planning processes and see a dramatic increase in the value of their lands. Critics say the seemingly unrestrained issuance of MZOs has allowed those with connections to exploit their access for private gain — and sparked a cottage industry for consultants or lobbyists able to help them.

The sale listing of the Cavan Monaghan property rekindles concerns that some developers benefitting from the Ford government’s policies are putting quick profits ahead of their promises to build. It also raises questions about so-called Mr. X’s influence within Ontario’s corridors of power.

Mutton has marketed himself to potential clients as a red-tape-cutting conduit to Queen’s Park and something of an MZO whisperer, uniquely skilled in securing the controversial zoning orders.

The 57-year-old former mayor of Clarington has claimed credit for another MZO in the Peterborough area and helped secure a local council’s endorsement for a third in Ramara Township that has yet to be granted by the province. None of these properties is in the Greenbelt.

Mutton did not respond to questions from the Star about his role in obtaining the MZOs. In a March 2022 LinkedIn post, he trumpeted his success in getting Cavan Monaghan’s council to support an MZO for the 70-acre parcel of land that was recently listed for sale.

“MZO’s (sic) are us,” he wrote. “We have been successful with multiple MZO’s in the Province of Ontario. Look no further for your project approval.”

Mutton denies he’s done any lobbying

Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake’s investigation into former housing minister Steve Clark highlighted how the government’s disorganized and deceptive process to remove lands from the Greenbelt favoured a small group of developers with access to top officials.

One of the power brokers who also had access was Mutton, although Wake doesn’t name him in his report because he appeared to be doing unregistered lobbying and could be the subject of a future investigation. Instead, Wake referred to him by the intriguing moniker, “Mr. X.”

Mr. X has been identified to the Star as Mutton. Mutton previously told the Star he’s not a lobbyist and he doesn’t know who Wake was referring to in his report.

“I’ve never been hired to do anything other than development services,” he said.

According to Wake’s report, Mr. X had a direct line to Clark’s office in the months leading up to the province’s decision to remove lands from the Greenbelt last fall. Wake reviewed emails in which the consultant boasted about courting political staff with invitations to golf and Raptors games.

Wake found the consultant spoke several times about MZOs with Clark’s former chief of staff, Ryan Amato, and also took Clark’s deputy chief of staff out for lunch, during which he discussed “a couple of MZO files” and gave her a package to give to Amato.

The package included information about land owned by developer Peter Tanenbaum that was among those removed from the Greenbelt.

Wake’s report notes how Tanenbaum hired Mr. X explicitly to help him get his land rezoned and removed from the Greenbelt, and that Mutton’s contract included a $1-million bonus if he was successful — an incentive that violates Ontario’s lobbying rules.

Mutton’s posed with Ford, ministers

A gregarious PC party booster, Mutton’s social media pages are filled with selfies with Tory politicians, and he has been photographed with Ford on at least six occasions.

Asked about Mutton earlier this month, Ford said he takes pictures with “thousands of people.” A spokesperson for the premier later added that Mutton’s relationship with the government is like “any other stakeholder or voter.”

Among the many selfies Mutton has posted, showing him with current and former PC cabinet ministers, is one with Clark that was uploaded to LinkedIn in June 2022.

The former housing minister is flanked by Mutton and Scott McFadden, who was at the time mayor of Cavan Monaghan, where two of Mutton’s clients, including Ganni, have received MZOs.

A few months before the photo was uploaded, Mutton wrote to McFadden and members of Cavan Monaghan’s council requesting their endorsement for an MZO, which would rezone Ganni’s 70-acre property from rural to industrial use.

MZO request came ‘half-baked’

The township’s five-member council was split. Two councillors opposed the motion because of what they said was a dearth of information and due diligence from the developer.

“I feel like it’s come half-baked to us,” one said of the proposal, prepared by Mutton and Melanie Horton, another consultant hired by Ganni.

McFadden disagreed, saying there was an urgent need to “jump-start” development. He cast the deciding vote in support of endorsing the developer’s MZO request, which Clark granted earlier this year.

McFadden, who did not run for reelection last fall, could not be reached for comment.

Matthew Graham, one of the two councillors who opposed supporting the MZO last year, is now the township’s mayor. While he thought the developer’s proposal was lacking when it came to council — “This is a few drawings on a piece of paper,” he said at the time — he said he still hoped the MZO would accelerate development of the property.

With Ganni now apparently looking to sell, Graham said he’s disappointed and unsure what will happen next. His misgivings about the MZO aside, he never thought the property could be resold before any development was done.

“I do believe that in the communication to council it was the expressed intention of the owner … to actually develop the property,” he said.

Unprecedented growth in MZOs under Ford

Minister’s Zoning Orders used to be exceptional. Prior to Ford taking office they were used roughly once a year. Since 2019 the province has doled out more than a hundred.

A 2021 Auditor General’s report found the “lack of transparency” around MZOs under Ford’s government — there was no formal process to apply for an MZO and no established criteria upon which the minister granted them — created “actual or perceived unfairness.”

An investigation by the Star and the Hamilton Spectator published earlier that year found almost half of the MZOs for private-sector developments at that time had gone to just four developers — the Cortellucci family, the De Gasperis family, Fieldgate Homes, and Flato Developments — all of whom, except the Cortellucci family, also had lands removed from the Greenbelt.

A housing ministry spokesperson said the province has used MZOs to “get critical local projects built,” including affordable housing, health-care facilities and long-term-care homes.

They said MZOs have “predominantly” been granted at the request of local councils, who still retain control over most of the building process.

Developers sought to resell land

The government has had mixed reactions when properties have been put up for sale after receiving the special zoning orders.

In one case in Oro-Medonte last year, the province initially said it would revoke the property’s MZO, with a housing ministry spokesperson saying MZOs are “not a tool to be leveraged for real-estate speculation.” But the province withdrew when the owner delisted the property.

When the Star discovered last month that a parcel of land in Ajax initially removed from the Greenbelt had been listed for sale by its China-based owner, the province acted quickly to return it to the protected zone.

In yet another case from earlier this summer, a company run by Shakir Rehmatullah, a personal friend of Ford, sold a chunk of land for what appears to be a significant profit after receiving an MZO to build “desperately needed new homes.” The province has not revoked the MZO in this case. Lawyers’ for Rehmatullah’s development firm say his company still retains ownership of the lands and will be involved in the construction of hundreds of homes.

NDP municipal affairs critic Jeff Burch said the Ford government has created a “two-tiered” system for granting MZOs where “wealthy insiders” get preferential treatment.

“He’s using MZOs not as a tool to build housing, but as a gift for land speculators.”

Graham, Cavan Monaghan’s mayor, said developers shouldn’t be allowed to resell properties after receiving an MZO, with rare exceptions. But he was torn about whether the province should revoke the MZO in his community.

“If the present owner doesn’t intend to move forward and sells the property to someone who will, then revoking the MZO might simply delay the intended outcome even further.”

In the meantime there are growing concerns about the other project for which Mutton helped to secure an MZO — a major redevelopment of Kawartha Downs — which Graham said he hoped would be “further along” by now. Council passed a motion earlier this week asking the developer for an update.

Without referring directly to Mutton, Graham said any claim to MZO expertise is just a “marketing tactic” because “at the end of the day, councils are responsible for their decision to support or not support what comes before them.”

But he added that municipalities across the province are desperate to help their communities, whether through housing or economic development.

“When a proponent asks you to support and potentially expedite them bringing that to your community through a tool like an MZO, that has no direct cost to the municipality, it puts councillors in a very difficult position to say no.”