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The Ford government appears to be silent on how much its years-long battle to protect the premier’s cellphone records from release has cost the taxpayer, as it moves to change the law and potentially nullify its latest legal defeat.
Since 2022, provincial lawyers have worked untold hours to block Global News’ attempts to access the government calls Ontario Premier Doug Ford makes and receives on his personal phone.
The province has acknowledged Ford uses his personal phone to make government decisions, but has argued revealing who he has spoken to would violate the premier’s privacy.
Ontario’s transparency watchdog, however, disagreed with the government’s assessment and, in late 2025, ordered the premier to hand his phone records to civil servants to sort out which calls should be released.
The government refused and instructed its lawyers to seek a judicial review to have that decision thrown out. It took a panel of judges less than three weeks to reject the request and order the premier to comply with transparency laws.
Now, the province is planning changes to Ontario’s freedom of information rules that could void the entire case, retroactively exempting the premier’s records from transparency rules.
How much the entire ordeal has cost the taxpayer, however, remains unclear.
The Ministry of the Attorney General won’t say how much time its in-house lawyers, or external counsel, has spent fighting in front of the Information and Privacy Commissioner or Ontario’s divisional court.
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Global News asked the attorney general’s office a series of questions, including how much had been spent on the appeal and legal battle or whether external lawyers had been hired.
Despite calls, emails and a text, no response was received ahead of publication.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the public deserved to know how much time and money had gone into the legal battle.
“This Premier has no respect for taxpayer dollars. If he is going to spend people’s hard-earned tax dollars to dodge accountability, he should at least share the price tag with Ontarians,” she wrote in a statement.
“Doug Ford is rewriting the rules to protect his own behind. If there’s nothing to hide, why go to such great lengths to stop those phone records from coming out? It’s quite obvious that he is worried about what we may find in those records.”
A 2024 freedom of information request from Global News suggested that, at that point, no external lawyers had been retained. In that instance, the government again refused to share the cost.
The government has previously disclosed the cost of its legal battles.
After admitting defeat on its wage restraint legislation, Bill 124, the province acknowledged its attempts to cap public sector pay had cost it $4.3 million.
In that case, after losing twice in court, the government backed down. It settled with the 10 unions that took it to court and agreed to pay them $3.45 million in legal costs, a ministry spokesperson, confirmed in 2024.
The province also paid the firm Lenczner Slaght $856,482 for legal services related to the appeal.
On the fight to defend Ford’s cellphone records, however, the government has been silent.
Liberal MPP Stephanie Smyth said if taxpayers have funded the attempts to keep Ford’s records secret, they deserve to know how much it cost.
“If public money is being used to wage a legal battle over the Premier’s own cellphone records, the public has every right to see the bill,” she wrote in a statement.
“But more importantly, I want to stress the absurdity of taxpayers being made to cover the cost of a Premier’s lack of transparency. At a time when families are struggling with the cost of living, it’s ridiculous for this government to spend public dollars in court just to save themselves from basic accountability.”
–with files from The Canadian Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
