Ontario lobbyists found to have violated rules, including relating to Greenbelt

An Ontario lobbyist with close connections to Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative Party violated the province’s lobbying rules, according to the integrity commissioner, after requesting Greenbelt lands be removed on behalf of a client and offering government staff tickets to a hockey game.

Nico Fidani-Diker was found in non-compliance with the Lobbyists Registration Act in five separate instances, ranging from unregistered lobbying to placing public office holders in a position of conflict of interest between 2022 and 2023, the integrity commissioner confirmed Monday.

At least two of the instances of non-compliance involved a proactive and ultimately successful effort to convince the Ford government to remove sections of land from the Greenbelt for development.

The government’s decision in 2022 to remove 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt led to public blowback, an active RCMP investigation, an apology and reversals from Premier Ford.

The land was removed from the Greenbelt in 2022 in a move the auditor general suggested would benefit select developers by more than $8 billion. It was returned to its protected status the next year when Ford apologized.

In a statement to Global News, Fidani-Diker accepted “full responsibility” and said it was never his “intent to be in non-compliance while lobbying.”

“I accept full responsibility for his decisions and findings regarding my initial months as a registered lobbyist, when setting up my company three years ago,” Fidani-Diker said. “These oversights were mine and mine alone.”

“I thank the Integrity Commissioner for bringing closure to this matter and for his recognition that no further action from his office is necessary,” Fidani-Diker said.

Fidani-Diker has had a long-standing relationship with the Ford family dating back to Toronto City Hall when he served as a special assistant in Mayor Rob Ford’s Office.

When Doug Ford became Premier in 2018, Fidani-Diker moved to Queen’s Park, serving as his executive assistant before being promoted to manage Stakeholder Relations in 2020.

Fidani-Diker told the integrity commissioner that he had known Premier Ford “for a long time” and that their “families are friends.” Fidani-Diker also attended the stag and doe party held in the backyard of Ford’s Etobicoke home in 2022.

Fidani-Diker spent two years managing stakeholder relationships for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party after he left government. He then launched a lobbying firm ONpoint Strategy Group in 2022 – a boutique operation focusing on “securing approvals, influencing policy, or managing public perception.”

Shortly after, Fidani-Diker threw a launch party for his company and hosted some of the key players in the Greenbelt scandal, including then-Housing Minister Steve Clark, Clark’s then-Chief of Staff Ryan Amato, along with other elected officials, political staff and land developers

After the 2022 election, Ontario’s minister of housing began acting on an instruction in Premier Ford’s 2022 mandate letter to review the Greenbelt and address housing affordability.

Around the same time, Fidani-Diker began representing landowners, some of whom benefited from the government’s decision to alter the boundaries.

A previous report by the integrity commissioner revealed that Fidani-Diker worked with John Mutton, a long-time lobbyist and former Mayor of Clarington, who was only identified in the report as “Mr. X.”

A landowner, who for nearly a decade had advocated for his lands to be removed from the Greenbelt, hired Mutton and Fidani-Diker as consultants to push for the removal of an 86-acre property on Nash Road in Clarington.

According to the report, Fidani-Diker charged $10,000 per month for his services, while “Mr. X” changed a $225,000 “Greenbelt fee” that would be paid once the government made a final decision.

The two consultants were hired between August and September 2022 — just a few months before the government’s decision was announced in November 2022.

While Fidani-Diker was initially doubtful that any Greenbelt alterations would be considered by the Ford government, he told the integrity commissioner that he provided advice and participated in bi-weekly meetings on the Nash Road property.

At the same time, Fidani-Diker began working with Penta Properties, which was looking to remove 31 acres from the Greenbelt at the Mount Hope site in Hamilton.

According to the integrity commissioner, Fidani-Diker eventually provided the Ministry of Housing with a “package of information” about sites to be extracted from the Greenbelt. The report stated the package came directly from the development company’s CEO and was handed over to Amato for consideration.

“One map identified only the 31-acre property owned by Penta Properties in the Mount Hope area with a label “REMOVE FROM GREENBELT,” the report stated.

Both lands Fidani-Diker was involved with were removed from the Greenbelt in November 2022, before the government reversed course and inserted the lands back in.

Before his retirement in early 2025, Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake finalized a report into unregistered lobbying activity. On Monday, his office published the results for the first time.

While the commissioner, who also acts as the Lobbyist Registrar, can hand out two-year lobbying bans for non-compliance, the office opted for a lighter touch in Fidani-Diker’s case: publicizing his name and actions, which is considered a penalty in itself.

Wake determined that Fidani-Diner violated lobbying rules by “failing to file a registration after lobbying a public office holder with respect to requesting that a client’s lands be removed from the Greenbelt area.”

Fidani-Diker, Wake found, also “contravened the act” by offering two public office holders tickets to a Toronto Maple Leafs game which “knowingly” put them in a position of conflict of interest.

While Wake’s findings don’t offer specific details, the penalty decision appears to also offer clues of a potential connection to Premier Ford.

In two separate violations, that Global News understands are not related to the Greenbelt, Fidani-Diker allegedly broke lobbying rules for “knowingly placing a public office holder in a position of real or potential conflict of interest in the court of lobbying him on behalf of another client.”

Both violations, between 2022 and 2023, appear to relate to the same office holder – with whom Fidani-Diker has a “prior close working relationship.”

In one case, the penalty stated, Fidani-Diker had “engaged in significant political work with this public office holder and had a friendship with this public office holder.”

In another case, Wake’s office said Fidani-Diker had a “long history of a close relationship” with the public office holder, including “significant personal, work and political connections.”

Since publishing his name is viewed as punishment, Fidani-Diker isn’t expected to face other further reprimands from the Office of the Integrity Commissioner.

Fidani-Diker said the work took place during his “initial months as a registered lobbyist” while he was still setting up his company.

“It was never my intent to be in non-compliance while lobbying,” Fidani-Diker said in a statement.

“Since 2022, we have 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,” Fidani-Diker said.

“I’m committed to upholding the highest standard of integrity in my professional activities.”