Integrity report outlines text exchanges between MPP Laurie Scott and John Mutton

An Ontario integrity commissioner’s report obtained by The Trillium details text messages between Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock PC MPP Laurie Scott and development consultant John Mutton, the lobbyist dubbed “Mr. X” in the commissioner’s 2023 Greenbelt report.

Then-integrity commissioner J. David Wake found the two “clearly communicated in an effort to move forward” a minister’s zoning order (MZO) while Mutton helped Scott raise political donations, The Trillium reported.

According to text records cited in the report, Mutton asked Scott in December 2022 whether she had heard anything from then-housing minister Steve Clark regarding an MZO for a property on Brown Line in Cavan Monaghan. Neither had received an update at that time. Clark formally issued the MZO on Jan. 20, 2023.

In early February, Scott texted Mutton asking for assistance selling tickets to the PC party’s annual leader’s dinner fundraiser. Weeks later, she texted Mutton: “The guy that got the MZO can’t buy.”

Scott gave the commissioner’s office copies of the messages, according to The Trillium.

Wake found Mutton should have registered as a lobbyist while working toward the MZO and that he broke the Lobbyists Registration Act by placing Scott “in a position of potential conflict of interest.” Wake made no formal ruling on Scott’s conduct, as she was not the subject of his investigation, and made no determination regarding whether she played a meaningful part in securing the approval.

Wake banned Mutton, a former Clarington mayor, from lobbying the Ontario government for two years — the maximum penalty — as a result of the same investigation.

In a statement provided to Kawartha Lakes Weekly, Scott’s office said: “My office received an MZO request that had endorsement from the municipality. The MZO followed the process established by MMAH and was subsequently approved. All information on donations and donors is publicly available.”