A Canadian taxpayer advocacy group is calling on the Ford government to “immediately backtrack” on controversial changes to transparency legislation it announced just before the weekend.

On Friday morning, Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Stephen Crawford unveiled plans to shield the premier, his cabinet ministers and their staff from freedom of information laws.

Crawford, who said the move was about modernizing outdated legislation, confirmed the plans would stop any records held by political staff and elected officials from being released under access to information laws.

Noah Jarvis, the Ontario director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the move was “absolutely outrageous” and would hurt the public’s right to know.

“Freedom of information laws are how taxpayers are able to hold politicians and bureaucrats accountable,” he said in a video posted to social media.

“If Ontario taxpayers are not able to access records from cabinet ministers and their offices, that means they have less ability to figure out how much they’re spending, how they’re wasting your taxpayers’ dollars.”

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The move has also been harshly criticized by Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim, who blasted the proposals as “shocking” and indicated she thought they had been brought in because a court ruled Premier Doug Ford would have to share details of his personal call log.

“By changing the law retroactively, the government’s message is plain: if oversight bodies get in the way, just change the rules,” she wrote in a statement.

Crawford said exempting texts and emails from ministers and their staff would allow them to communicate more freely, without fear of how the public could react.

“Any interactions of the executive council members amongst themselves will be confidential,” he said on Friday. “And I think that’s in the best interests of the people so that we can have candid conversations, important discussions without any potential blowback.”

Jarvis said the public deserved to be able to see how the politicians they elect and pay are making their decisions.

“At the end of the day, the government is meant to be working for you, not the other way around,” he said.

“Ford needs to immediately backtrack on this attempt to take an axe to transparency laws and to hide from Ontario taxpayers. What do they have to hide? Are they trying to hide certain emails, text messages? Are they trying to dodge accountability from Ontario taxpayers?”

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