Premier Doug Ford appointed longtime family friend and Toronto Police superintendent Ron Taverner to become OPP commissioner on Nov. 29, 2018. The two are pictured at a fundraising gala in 2016. Facebook/Reena Foundation

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he didn’t recuse himself from the decision to name longtime family friend Ron Taverner the new commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, drawing renewed calls from the opposition for the integrity commissioner to investigate the appointment.

The blunt admission comes after iPolitics reported early Tuesday that the requirements for the commissioner’s job were lowered midway through the search for a new head of Ontario’s police force.

The change removed the minimum-rank requirements that had made it impossible for Taverner to apply for the job.

[READ MORE: Qualifications lowered for OPP commissioner job, allowing Ford family friend to apply]

Taverner is a superintendent with the Toronto Police Service. His rank is two positions lower than the minimum rank of deputy chief that was first required of all applicants. Taverner and Ford are longtime family friends.

“Recuse myself for what?” Ford said when asked whether he had left the cabinet table when his friend’s appointment was being discussed.

“I have final sign-off on everything in this province. Every appointment in this province, I sign off,” he said.

The opposition is accusing the government of “meddling” in a hiring process that includes a web of possible conflicts of interest.

“The premier essentially has admitted that he was engaged in a conflict of interest when he signed off on the cabinet decision to hire his friend as the OPP chief,” Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said. “I think that’s a significant admission.”

In addition to Taverner’s friendship with Ford, he is also friendly with one of the people on what the government has dubbed an “independent” hiring committee.

Deputy Minister of Community Safety Mario Di Tommaso was Taverner’s boss for many years when they both served on Toronto’s police force. Until he became deputy minister in October, Di Tommaso oversaw the force’s West Field Command — a region that covers the three divisions Taverner was responsible for.

When Di Tommaso’s appointment was announced in the first week of October, Taverner sung Di Tommaso’s praises to the Toronto Sun.

“He has the respect of all the men and women he’s served with or who have served under him. He’s a police officer’s police officer,” Taverner is quoted as saying.

Three weeks later on Oct. 22, Di Tomasso started his new job on the same day that the first version of the job posting for OPP commissioner appears to have been advertised.

That job description was changed two days later to remove any threshold for the rank of people applying.

One month later, Taverner was appointed to the job.

[READ MORE: Opposition wants second investigation into Ford’s chief of staff]

Ford maintained on Tuesday that an “independent panel” unanimously selected Taverner from the pool of candidates, and cabinet simply approved its selection.

“I go back to the three-person panel. I had zero influence and, no matter who it was, I would have accepted it. I accept the professional’s advice,” he said.

After days of refusing to say who was on the selection committee, Ford told reporters that in addition to Di Tomasso, the committee included cabinet secretary Steve Orsini (who reports to the premier) and a representative from the head-hunting firm Odgers Berndtson.

Asked how the committee could be considered independent, given that Di Tomasso and Taverner worked together, Ford said: “Over 50 years, Ron Taverner worked with every single chief in the last 50 years.”

Ford said Odgers Berndtson decided to lower the required qualifications. “What I understand, Odgers, the search firm, was saying, ‘We have to broaden this,’ ” he said.

The head-hunting firm told iPolitics it couldn’t confirm nor deny the premier’s comments because its involvement is covered by client confidentiality.

Opposition calls for investigation

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and it really looks like this process was put together to really favour Mr. Taverner,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said.

“You don’t change a job description so that your friend can get the job.”

The NDP, Liberals, Green Party and the advocacy group Democracy Watch are all calling on the province’s integrity commissioner to investigate the appointment.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said Ford should have removed himself from the final decision to appoint Taverner.

“I think it’s very reasonable to suspect that there was political interference. I think reasonable people would say, ‘Something’s fishy,’ ” Fraser said.

[READ MORE: Ford government reopens door to cash-for-access fundraising]

Earlier on Tuesday, Ford dodged Horwath’s questions in the legislature, sending them to his Community Safety Minister Sylvia Jones instead.

“iPolitics has just broken a story. They report: ‘When the top job with the Ontario Provincial Police was posted in October, Ron Taverner couldn’t apply, because his rank was too low. Then two days later, the requirement suddenly changed,’ ” Horwath said.

“Can the premier tell us if the premier’s office had anything to do with this change? Or did the premier recuse himself from that decision?”

Jones said the decision was made to “make sure that the best person to head our OPP was going to apply.”

“Frankly, I find it pretty offensive that for someone who has spent literally decades in our public service, it has been suggested that he is not qualified to serve as the commissioner for the OPP. That’s what I find offensive,” she said.

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