TRILLIUM TALK: Big scandal in a small town

Trillium Talk - A weekly briefing from the Ontario Legislature from the team at The Trillium

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Welcome back to Trillium Talk, your must-see briefing from Village Media’s team of journalists at the Ontario Legislature.

Every Sunday, Scott Sexsmith sits down with one of our staffers at The Trillium to talk about the week that was at Queen's Park — and the week ahead.

On today's episode is reporter Charlie Pinkerton, who made some big headlines of his own this week. He was part of a team of journalists from The Toronto Star and The Narwhal who won this year's esteemed Michener Award for public service journalism for their dogged reporting on the Greenbelt scandal.
It was Pinkerton who first revealed that wealthy developers who benefited from Ford government zoning decisions, including the Greenbelt land swap, had attended the Premier's daughter's wedding. For those who may not know, it was also that story that led to the launch of The Trillium. (You can learn all about that HERE.)

This week, Pinkerton has been digging deeper into what happened in small-town Brighton, Ont., where councillors openly admitted they were hiring a well-connected lobbying firm to "work the backroom" of the Ford government in the hopes of landing some badly needed infrastructure funding.
The story sparked quite a controversy at Queen's Park, where opposition MPPs delighted in the idea that town councillors believed they needed to hire a friend of the premier to get something done. Newly released documents, obtained by Pinkerton via a Freedom of Information request, shed even more light on how everything unfolded.