A professor of political science at the University of Windsor is calling the resignation of Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark 'inevitable'.
Lydia Miljan is reacting to the news that came out Monday morning that Minister Clark decided to resign from his cabinet role amid the Greenbelt scandal.
Clark announced the decision in a letter to Premier Doug Ford on social media, where Clark writes that his presence "will only cause further distraction from the important work that needs to be done".
The move comes days after a scathing report from the province's integrity commissioner, who found Clark violated ethics rules for the way the government removed land earmarked for development from the protected Greenbelt.
On Thursday Clark apologized for his actions, and Premier Ford backed up the Minister, stating that Clark would remain as part of the team as the government tries to fulfil their promise to build 1.5 million homes over 10 years.
Miljan says it was inevitable.
"I think it's a good choice on his part because it helps put a line under the story, and you get real ministerial accountability with his resignation."
She says the apology on Thursday was to see if they could get away with it.
"You had Doug Ford having his full throw of support of the Minister, and then Clark also saying 'my bad, I'm sorry, I take responsibility', but then it begs the question then 'why aren't you resigning?'. So, they gave it a shot, and I think that the response from most people was that 'you're not taking responsibility if you just apologize', it had no meaning."
Miljan says this decision was to remove Clark as a distraction.
"So I think they probably had some conversations, and this was the best outcome to allow the government to move forward. And I think that to his credit, his statement saying that he's become the distraction is very true, and this is really the only way to not be a distraction."
Last year, the province took 7,400 acres of land out of the Greenbelt to build 50,000 homes and replaced it with about 9,400 acres elsewhere.
Integrity Commissioner, J. David Wake, found the Greenbelt land removal process was marked by "unnecessary hastiness and deception."
He found Clark's chief of staff was the driving force behind the land swap that benefited certain land developers and that Clark failed to oversee his staff.
Clark states that he will continue to serve as the MPP for Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.
-with files from The Canadian Press