Despite the revelation that police have recovered the infamous “crack video” in the midst of investigating Mayor Rob Ford over secret meetings with an alleged drug dealer, the Ontario government would not act without a criminal conviction.

“There’s nothing that we can do at this point. The province has no power to remove anybody, and obviously we’d have to wait until the investigation unfolds as to next steps,” a “saddened” Municipal Affairs Minister Linda Jeffrey told reporters Thursday.

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“A conviction is the next step for any action by the province,” said Jeffrey, adding she did not think it would be “wise to speculate.”

But the minister did say that if Ford, who has not been charged with anything, were convicted of a criminal offence, “it makes it more challenging to stay in your seat.”

“As a political figure it is far more challenging when you’re convicted, and certainly these are very serious allegations,” she said.

Earlier in the day — before Chief Bill Blair confirmed the existence of the infamous video — Premier Kathleen Wynne had refused to “weigh in” to the controversy.

Minutes after the release of hundreds of pages of court documents on Ford’s dealings with his pal Sandro Lisi, Wynne was asked what the provincial government planned to do.

“I’m not going to weigh in to an area where I just don’t know what the issues are going to be,” the premier told reporters at a campaign-style event in Brampton, where she was promoting the enhancement of the Canada Pension Plan.

“It’s for the police to deal with. I really don’t have a comment on what has been released today. I don’t know what has been released,” she said.

“It’s up to the justice system to deal with these issues.”

Wynne was visibly uncomfortable at questions about whether it was appropriate for the Toronto police service to be investigating its political master or whether the Ontario Provincial Police should be called in.

“If there are police matters, then it’s up to the police to deal with them. We don’t direct the police,” the premier said.

“There are rules in place about who can be in public office and who cannot. We’re going to let this play out. This is not something I’m going to weigh in to,” she said.

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“I will continue to work with the city of Toronto . . . that is my responsibility. These issues are separate and apart from our day-to-day workings with municipalities.”

The premier’s reticence is in stark contrast to her reaction after the Toronto Star and the U.S. website Gawker revealed in May that there is a video of Ford apparently smoking crack cocaine.

“It’s concerning to me if there are issues — whether they’re personal issues — that get in the way of a . . . municipal government being able to do its business and being able to work in the best interests the city,” Wynne said on May 21.

“When there is a distraction of a personal nature or a distraction that takes the council and the leadership away from . . . serving the interests of the city and getting the business of the city done, then that’s a problem,” she said.

“And so my hope is that they will be dealt with on a personal level and at a council level as quickly as possible.”

Wynne, who represents the Toronto riding of Don Valley West, suffered the wrath of Ford and his brother Councillor Doug Ford for her comments at the time.

The brothers suggested she should mind her own business given all the challenges facing the province.

“I think the premier should take care of the problems that she has at Queen’s Park right now,” the mayor said on May 30.

His brother attacked Wynne — who won the Liberal leadership in January but hasn’t yet faced voters in a provincial election — as “an unelected premier.”

Under Ontario’s City of Toronto Act, Jeffrey could order a mayoral and council byelection only under extraordinary circumstances.

“If city council is unable to hold a meeting for a period of 60 days because of a failure to obtain a quorum, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing may by order declare all the offices of the members of the council to be vacant and a byelection shall be held in accordance with the Municipal Elections Act, 1996,” the Act states.

There are no signs Queen’s Park would yet take such drastic action.

Still, there is political fallout at the provincial level.

Former deputy mayor Doug Holyday would not comment when asked if Ford should step down.

“It’s not up to me to say that,” Holyday, the newly elected Progressive Conservative MPP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, said after emerging from the legislature’s question period after Blair revealed investigators have the video.

Holyday said he did not doubt Star reporters Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle had seen a video.

“I believe that the reporters did not lie. They said they saw something, they saw it. How accurate or valid it is, I do not know,” he said as Conservative Leader Tim Hudak’s press secretary pulled him away from reporters.

Because Hudak has tied himself to Ford politically, there could be collateral damage to the provincial Tories.

With Files From Rob Ferguson

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