Overview
- Ontario’s latest budget bill would place the premier’s, cabinet ministers’ and parliamentary assistants’ offices outside the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
- The proposal is retroactive to 1988, a shift that would void a court order requiring a review of Premier Doug Ford’s personal cellphone logs for government business.
- Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Patricia Kosseim, warned the move would weaken transparency for generations and said her office will issue a detailed response after reviewing the bill.
- The government says the change aligns Ontario with other jurisdictions, while experts argue it goes further than most and note only Saskatchewan, Quebec and the federal level exclude ministers’ offices in a comparable way.
- Democracy Watch founder Duff Conacher is exploring a court challenge to the retroactivity, arguing it would let years of ministers’ agendas, briefing notes and other political-office records stay secret.