TCHC employees didn't break rules during purchases: report

There was no favouritism or conflict of interest when senior Toronto Community Housing Corporation staff purchased market-rate condos at the revamped Regent Park public housing project, an independent review has found.

In a report released Friday, former chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court Patrick Lesage concluded that none of the four TCHC employees who bought units at the newly constructed One Cole Condominiums as part of the Regent Park revitalization project — including former CEO Derek Ballantyne — received any benefits or preferences that would have not been afforded to a member of the public.

Ballantyne and another former executive, Gordon Chu, were able to purchase parking spots in the summer of 2009 for $9,500, well below the full $22,000 parking price. But the report found that the majority of the parking space purchasers paid that same lower price.

The kind of price they got was consistent with the prices that other buyers who were purchasing units at the time, Lesage found, and "it would be unreasonable to conclude Chu and Ballantyne received a preferential benefit."

He concluding that he believed "no executives or employees of TCHC were in a conflict of interest in purchasing these condominiums."

The employees and executives also did not receive any affordable housing loans or any associated upgrades, Lesage wrote.

But Lesage did recommend that transactions associated with future purchases of TCHC property by staff and executives be disclosed in a public registry in the interest of transparency.

The TCHC said it has accepted that recommendation, and is now moving to implement the public registry.

Lesage's report was commissioned by the TCHC in April following media reports that raised questions about the integrity about the purchase process.