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Ontario is set to make Premier Doug Ford and cabinet members’ records secret as it “modernizes” freedom-of-information laws, which critics say will dramatically curtail public scrutiny of the political process.
Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Minister Stephen Crawford, however, said his government is still “one of the most transparent governments in the history of Ontario,” citing an open data catalogue, an audit of a regulator and a move eight years ago to publish financial information from the former Liberal government.
“We’re very focused on transparency,” he said at a news conference Friday.
The changes will be retroactive and may put in jeopardy numerous ongoing battles by news organizations fighting for information about the Greenbelt scandal and Ford’s cellphone records, including an ongoing court case over the latter. The government is trying to prevent the release of those records.
Once enacted, the new law will mean that records of the premier, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and their offices would no longer be subject to freedom-of-information laws. Members of the public could still request records held by public servants in government ministries.
‘Public accountability is eviscerated’: privacy commissioner
Information and privacy commissioner Patricia Kosseim, who has sided with the initial request from Global News for the premier’s cellphone records, said retroactively changing the law sends a message that “if oversight bodies get in the way, just change the rules.”
“Freedom of information laws exist to provide Ontarians with vital information about how government decisions are made, on what basis, who influenced them, and whether the public interest is being served,” Kosseim wrote in a statement.
“If records about government business can be shielded from scrutiny simply because they sit in a minister’s office, on a staffer’s device, or within a political account, public accountability is eviscerated.”
Crawford said Ontario is one of the only jurisdictions in Canada without “explicit protections” for records belonging to cabinet ministers or their offices.
“This weakens clarity of protections for cabinet decision-making and undermines the candidness of critical confidential discussion. Ministers need to be able to receive candid, evidence-based advice,” he said.
Records that would reveal cabinet deliberations or advice to government are already exempted under the current law.
That law was written nearly 40 years ago and needed to be updated, Crawford said.
“The methods of communication were very different,” he said.
“We didn’t have smartphones. We didn’t have cyber threats. We didn’t have cloud computing. I mean, when this legislation was written it was 10 years before the Spice Girls were a thing. So that’s how long ago this legislation was written. It didn’t contemplate the modern world that we’re in today.”
Crawford did not explain the connection between the advent of smartphones and a need to restrict public access to cabinet ministers’ records, but NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she believes they want to avoid having to disclose records like text messages.
The province will also lengthen freedom-of-information response timelines from 30 calendar days to 45 business days, or about 63 days.
Crawford said the province’s auditor general and information and privacy commissioner will still be able to compel cabinet to produce records.
He said the move to shield cabinet from records requests is in line with most other provinces in the country as well as the federal government.
He also announced the government would be strengthening its cybersecurity laws.
Critics are calling on the Ford government to launch a months-delayed review of the Greenbelt. The mandatory review is required by law and was supposed to start in February
Ford government ‘dodging accountability’: Greens leader
The changes will make it “impossible” to uncover the government’s role in the Greenbelt scandal or the allocation of a private spa at Ontario Place, said Stiles.
“Doug Ford is changing the rules so he can hide the truth from Ontarians,” she said in a post on social media. ” An honest government doesn’t change the rules to hide from the public. But Doug Ford’s government does.”
Not even President Donald Trump has changed freedom of information laws in the U.S., despite being “all over the Epstein files,” Stiles told CBC News.
It seems on initial review that the Ford government is proposing “the biggest changes that anybody’s seen in decades” to access to information laws in Canada, she said.
Stiles said a few experts on those laws told her the province was not aligning itself with other jurisdictions, despite what Crawford claimed. She said her team will take a closer look at that alleged issue.
The announcement “crosses the line between a healthy democracy and a decline toward autocracy,” said Toronto Coun. Josh Matlow on social media.
He said freedom of information requests, or FOIs, are “a basic way” for journalists to hold governments accountable.
Ford is “already dodging accountability” before members of parliament return to the legislature, said Mike Schreiner, leader for the Ontario Greens.
The Ford government is “still under an active RCMP investigation” after staff were allegedly discovered using code words and personal emails to hide “corrupt decision-making” tied to the Greenbelt scandal, said Schreiner.
“We need more honesty, accountability and transparency from this government, not less,” he said. “Ontarians have a right to know how decisions are being made in their own government.”
