Inside this Greenbelt developer’s push to build a cottage country resort — and how the community is pushing back

The sign appeared one day in the spring of 2021 in front of what residents had always considered a public dock. It was where many launched their boats, where their kids learned to swim.

Suddenly it wasn’t theirs anymore.

The new owner was initially a mystery. Golf Course Community Two Inc. was the name on property records.

Residents eventually learned the company was controlled by Shakir Rehmatullah, president of Markham-based FLATO Developments, which is proposing to build a “world-class” golf resort on the shores of Sturgeon Lake, where the dock stands.

Rehmatullah’s name didn’t mean much to the residents at the time. All they knew was that he was a developer from the city, and they had lots of reasons for opposing the project no matter who was behind it.

But in the two years since then, as Rehmatullah has become a recurring character in the province’s Greenbelt scandal, the community’s resistance has intensified.

“It has deepened our suspicion,” said Sylvia Keesmaat, co-founder of No to FLATO, a community group formed to oppose the project. “We don’t trust him.”

Rehmatullah’s ‘in the middle of’ Ford-developer controversy

What’s happening in Cameron, a rural village in Kawartha Lakes, shows how the Greenbelt scandal has stretched far beyond the protected area itself. Many of those battling against the project see their fight as being connected to a larger resistance to the Ford government’s developer-friendly planning policies.

Rehmatullah, who has described himself as a personal friend of the premier, has figured into all of Ford’s developer-related controversies this year.

He’s the only developer who had land removed from the Greenbelt who also attended Ford’s daughter’s wedding and stag party. He was on the Las Vegas trip that cost a cabinet minister and political aide their jobs in September. He has received the most Minister’s Zoning Orders — the controversial planning tool issued with unprecedented frequency by the Ford government.

“He’s in the middle of it all,” Keesmaat said.

Rehmatullah’s reputation in Cameron has taken a major hit in the process.

FLATO says it’s received ‘overwhelming community support’

Despite his high-profile philanthropy — FLATO has made large donations to a theatre and college in nearby Lindsay, and the company’s $3-million gift to a local hospital is the largest in the hospital’s history — many residents have lately been focused on Rehmatullah’s mentions in the recent integrity commissioner’s report, in which Commissioner J. David Wake suggested Rehmatullah was not telling the truth.

Rehmatullah told Wake that no one connected to Ford’s government let him know it was considering changes to the Greenbelt, but Wake found that “questionable,” given that Rehmatullah’s lawyers sent unsolicited emails about removing lands to Ryan Amato, the former housing ministry staffer who the auditor general and integrity commissioner found orchestrated the ill-fated land swap.

Wake wrote that Rehmatullah’s explanation that the removal requests were sent in the normal course of business “strains credulity.” He added he was unable to conclude “what or who” prompted Rehmatullah to request his and a partner’s lands be removed. “But I find it is more likely than not that someone did.”

Rehmatullah declined to be interviewed for this story. A lawyer for his company did not answer questions about the integrity commissioner’s report.

FLATO’s lawyer, Michael Fenrick, said the company has received “overwhelming community support” across Ontario.

“There will always be people who resist growth and change in their communities. … The path to community building takes time and care and it is a job FLATO takes seriously.”

The sale of the dock

Before Rehmatullah became associated with the Greenbelt scandal, there were several incidents related to his activities in Cameron that residents say raise questions.

First there was the sale of the dock on Long Beach Road, which had been privately owned by a local residents’ association but open to the public.

Property records show it was transferred in 2020 from the Long Beach Residents’ Association to a numbered company owned by Donald and Debra Abel for $34,316.

Donald Abel, a former NDP MPP, was the residents’ association’s longtime president.

The Abels then sold the dock property, together with some rental cottages and a general store on the waterfront to a numbered company controlled by Rehmatullah in the spring of 2021 for a combined $680,000. The property was then transferred to Golf Course Community Two Inc., another company controlled by Rehmatullah.

In a short interview on his doorstep, Donald Abel said the residents’ association sold the dock to his company to pay back a loan that accumulated as a result of legal fees incurred by the association over a years-long property-line dispute with a neighbour. The dock’s sale price was set to cover the exact amount of the debt — “right to the penny,” Abel said, adding that the decision to sell was recommended and approved by the association’s five-person board of directors, which included Abel and his wife.

Regarding the sale of his properties to Rehmatullah, Abel said he didn’t know who the buyer was, only that it was a numbered company. He said he assumed they would continue running the dock and cottages as he had.

Abel wouldn’t say if he would have done anything differently if he did know.

“It is what it is. I can’t change it,” he said. “We’re just surprised that it turned out this way.”

FLATO’s lawyer did not respond to Abel’s comments.

Residents raised concern over excavation, tree cutting

Around the same time that the no trespassing sign appeared at the dock, residents noticed Rehmatullah had bought other properties in the area. Excavating equipment started to appear on some of the recently sold properties, they said.

In one case, workers hired by Rehmatullah started drilling on one of the farms they didn’t own.

“They came onto our property in the spring — end of March, early April, when the ground’s really soft — with a big, heavy-track vehicle and ripped up a lot of the soil,” said Paul Carew, a 73-year-old semi-retired farmer who grows crops and has beef cattle.

Carew is one of just a handful of holdouts in the area. “I like owning the property and we don’t need the money,” he said, explaining why he hasn’t sold to FLATO despite several offers.

FLATO eventually paid Carew for the damage the workers caused to his property, Carew said, but only after he gave the company a deadline and threatened to hire a lawyer. Carew would not say how much the company paid him.

FLATO’s lawyer said Carew’s explanation for why the company paid him for damage caused by their contractors is “speculative” and “wrong.”

“Regrettably, damage does happen on development projects from time-to-time and sometimes this affects third parties, such as Mr. Carew,” Fenrick wrote. “FLATO pays appropriate compensation to people whose property is adversely affected by its contractors.”

A couple months later, another holdout, Leslie Dyment, a sheep farmer and longtime resident, noticed workers clearing farmland on a recently sold property across the road from her.

An avid birder, Dyment knew it was prohibited to cut trees and clear land during the spring — when many migratory birds are breeding — without doing a proper survey of the area. She contacted the Canadian Wildlife Service and a few days later the clearing stopped, she said.

The Canadian Wildlife Service sent a letter to FLATO in June 2021 after being contacted by a concerned citizen, a service spokesperson said. “The primary purpose of the letter was to inform them of the protections that the Migratory Birds Regulations afford to nests of migratory birds and their responsibilities under the law.”

A lawyer for FLATO said any allegation that the company engaged in illegal land clearing is “baseless, false and defamatory.”

FLATO met with opposition and support

FLATO’s proposed resort in Cameron, dubbed “Kawartha Bay,” includes an 18-hole golf course, marina, “spa-like” amenities and 423 “seasonal dwelling units,” including luxury estate homes and “cozy cottages.”

Residents who oppose the project have a long list of concerns. They fear the loss of biodiversity and agricultural land; they don’t believe there is sufficient infrastructure to support the scope of the development, particularly as it relates to water usage, which is already strained in the area; and they’re worried about what a dramatic increase in seasonal tourism will do to the character of their community.

“When you see the land being destroyed it’s heartbreaking,” said Dyment, 70.

Not everyone in Cameron is opposed to the project. At a public meeting in September, two residents spoke in favour of it — one noting FLATO’s “positive community involvement” — while eight people spoke against it.

At the same meeting, Keesmaat presented to council a petition signed by more than 250 people opposed to the project. She told the Star the number of petitioners is now more than 400.

FLATO’s lawyer said the company “believes in open and transparent public processes,” and it has received “supportive comments and goodwill from across the Cameron community.”

Unlike some of FLATO’s other developments that have come under the microscope in recent months, there is no MZO for the proposed golf resort in Cameron, so it will have to wend its way through the standard development application process, which could take months.

“My constituents have a lot of concerns, and I share those concerns,” said Mike Perry, councillor for the area. Perry said the concerns are widely held, not just among the No to FLATO activists.

In September, Kawartha Lakes council voted unanimously to send FLATO’s application to have the land rezoned back to staff until a review of public comments and technical studies are completed.

Earlier this year Kawartha Lakes council voted to not support any future MZOs — which override local planning authority and limit public consultation — at least until the municipality completes its growth strategy. The vote came after FLATO received an amendment to an MZO it had received for a project in Lindsay that — without any input from council — dramatically increased the size and scope of that development.

The fact FLATO’s application in Cameron will have to follow the standard processes — including that residents who oppose the project will be able to make their case against it — is a comfort to Keesmaat.

“That gives us a lot of hope,” she said. “We have a very strong case as to why this should not happen.”