Marit Stiles, the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, has asked the province's integrity commissioner to consider, as part of his investigation into the greenbelt issue, the use of personal phones and email by the premier and government staff.

Stiles' request follows last week's harsh report from the auditor general regarding the government's decision to open protected greenbelt land for housing development.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk found that the process for selecting the fifteen specified sites was not transparent, as all of these sites except one were proposed by the chief of staff to Housing Minister Steve Clark, who received packages at an industry event from two major developers.

Lysyk also found that political staff received emails from lobbyists on their personal accounts and sometimes forwarded emails from their government accounts to personal accounts, contrary to public service guidelines, and they regularly deleted emails, violating the rules.

Stiles is also asking the integrity commissioner to be aware of a Global News report indicating that Premier Ford uses his personal cell phone for government business.

The ethical investigation by the integrity commissioner into the greenbelt pertains to Clark, not Ford, but Stiles says that communications between Ford and Clark are relevant, so she wants to ensure that any relevant records on Ford's personal phone are disclosed.