Carmine Nigro

Ford's government issued more Minister's Zoning Orders (MZOs) in 2020 alone than the McGuinty and Wynne governments combined over 15 years — bypassing environmental reviews, municipal authority, and public consultation. Nearly half of all MZOs issued in Ford's first term benefited PC donors or party insiders. Key recipients include the DeGasperis family and Flato Developments, who received nine MZOs for thousands of homes on protected farmland.

Received an MZO for a Craft Development project in Kawartha Lakes while simultaneously serving as VP of the PC Ontario Fund. He was seated at Ford's own table at the Ford family wedding alongside other developer guests who collectively received more MZOs than the Liberals issued over 15 years.

Between November 2025 and March 2026, the Ford government announced plans to provincialize three of Toronto's major waterfront assets in rapid succession: legislative changes to seize Exhibition Place (192 acres of City of Toronto land); a proposal to fill in part of Lake Ontario to build a 2-million-square-foot convention centre (the city was not consulted); and a unilateral takeover of Billy Bishop Airport. None of these announcements were preceded by consultation with the City of Toronto or its residents. The convention centre site remains unconfirmed, unfeasibility-studied, and unfunded. The Exhibition Place moves followed years of provincial encroachment on adjacent Ontario Place — a $2.2-billion redevelopment awarded, without competition, to a company whose VP of Communications was Doug Ford's own former Chief of Staff.

Appointed by Ford as Chair of the Ontario Place Redevelopment Corporation — the provincial body overseeing the no-tender Therme deal. His simultaneous roles as PC fundraiser, MZO recipient, LCBO chair, and Ontario Place overseer illustrate the Ford government's pattern of rotating trusted insiders across sensitive files.

A company co-led by Ford's close friend and PC Party fundraiser Carmine Nigro extracted an undisclosed settlement from Ontario's public transit agency after claiming $500 million for air rights it never fully paid for — and the Ford government refuses to say how much taxpayers owe.

President and CEO of Craft Development Corporation, the Ford-connected half of the Craft Kingsmen joint venture that claimed $492.9 million from Metrolinx for expropriated air rights over Union Station. Nigro is a former Vice-Chairman of the PC Ontario Fund and a close personal friend of Premier Ford — seated at Ford's own table at a Ford family wedding in 2022. While his company pursued a half-billion-dollar claim against a provincial agency, Ford had appointed Nigro to chair the LCBO, chair the Ontario Place Redevelopment Corporation, and sit on the board of Invest Ontario. The settlement amount was kept confidential.