Ontario's Premier Accountability Dashboard · Queen's Park Watch
Ted Hsu
Ontario Liberal Party
Liberal MPP for Kingston and the Islands. On May 12, 2025, Hsu filed a formal complaint with Ontario Integrity Commissioner Cathryn Motherwell alleging Premier Ford and Ministers Khanjin, McCarthy, and Lecce may have contravened the Members' Integrity Act in connection with their handling of the Dresden landfill EA reversal, based on The Trillium's reporting that York1's owners donated approximately $200,000 to PC causes since 2018. The Commissioner declined to investigate on August 20, 2025, but explicitly stated she made "no findings about the underlying facts" — a non-decision Hsu described as unsatisfying.
Connected Scandals
The Ford government promised a comprehensive environmental assessment for a proposed landfill directly upstream from Canada's only population of the salamander mussel — then buried the reversal inside omnibus Bill 5 after winning a byelection on the promise, exempting a company whose owners donated $200,000 to the PCs from all provincial environmental review, leaving 33 species at risk in one of Canada's most biodiverse rivers with no provincial protection.
Filed the formal Integrity Commissioner complaint against Premier Ford and three ministers over the York1 landfill EA reversal and its connection to $200,000 in PC donor contributions from the landfill's owners.
Ford set Ontario's 2026-27 wildfire firefighting budget at $150 million — nearly half of what was actually spent the year before ($271 million) — right as the province suffered its worst fire season since 2021, forcing 15 northern communities to evacuate and Ontario to beg Ottawa for emergency air support. When called out, Ford called the criticism "despicable and disgusting."
Ontario Liberal critic for Rural Affairs, Natural Resources, Mining & Forestry; criticized the wildfire budget as inadequate.