Ontario to make premier, cabinet ministers’ records secret as it tightens FOI laws

TORONTO — Ontario is set to make Premier Doug Ford and cabinet members’ records secret as it “modernizes” freedom-of-information laws, a change the province’s privacy watchdog warns will eviscerate public accountability.

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 Friday at a press conference.

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.

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.

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.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the move is indicative of a government dodging accountability.

“Doug Ford is changing the rules to make it easier to hide the truth,” he wrote in a statement. “We need more honesty, accountability and transparency from this government, not less.”

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.

“I actually think this is why these laws are more important than ever,” she said.

“Obviously we don’t all write letters to each other anymore on notepads, right? It’s changed, and the laws should keep up with that, but what they should be doing is expanding access, not actually removing access to that information.”

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.

Proposed cybersecurity measures also announced Friday include requiring institutions such as hospitals and universities to assess cybersecurity every two years and report critical incidents to the government. School boards would also have to notify parents when third-party software uses a student’s personal information.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2026.

Allison Jones and Liam Casey, The Canadian Press