Ontario civil servants processing freedom of information documents within the Ford government have been told to pause their work, putting thousands of transparency requests in limbo.

A message sent to senior staff within the government’s access to information departments before the Victoria Day long weekend told them to stop releasing all official communications.

Under Ontario law, freedom of information requests allow the public access to a wide variety of government information, which must be released on a set schedule for a fee.

Sources told Global News the message had been sent via Microsoft Teams, rather than through an official memo, instructing a pause on all fee estimates, extensions, decision letters and the release of documents. Global News is not naming the sources as they were not authorized to publicly discuss the freedom of information pause.

The total pause on transparency requests comes after the Ford government rewrote freedom of information rules to exclude all communications and other documents held by the premier, his cabinet and all of their political staff.

Those rules were tabled through the provincial budget in March, which was rushed past the committee hearings and into law through a late-night sitting.

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The pause, Global News understands, is at least partly prompted by the confusion and questions the changes have created.

Government lawyers are still figuring out the finer details of how the law will be applied and how to fight potential appeals, meaning official guidance on how to interpret requests still isn’t ready.

Until that advice is drafted and approved, the freeze will likely remain in place.

A version of the communication sent out was obtained by The Trillium, which said it applied to all freedom of information departments.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the change was “outrageous” after other revisions had already been made to transparency laws.

“It sounds to me like a government that’s using the new legal changes — the changes that they made to hide their own records from the public’s view — that they’re using those changes as an excuse to obliterate access to any information now,” she said.

“What that means is less transparency, less accountability from a government that clearly has something to hide.”

Ontario Liberal interim leader John Fraser called the move a “shakedown” of the transparency system.

“Freedom of information is not optional,” he wrote in a statement. “It does not go on breaks. It is a right that belongs to every person in this province.”

The government did not respond to questions from Global News ahead of publication.

The effects of the undefined pause are unclear.

The government’s current freedom of information laws require responses to requests within 30 days; an order can be sought to force the ministry to comply if it doesn’t in time.

The Information and Privacy Commission, which oversees freedom of information laws in the province and would issue those orders, did not respond to questions ahead of publication.

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