Ontario’s transparency watchdog is renewing its calls for Ford’s government to scrap its controversial freedom of information crackdown, saying the changes would make the province “less transparent than even the federal government.”
Shortly after a court concluded that Prime Minister Doug Ford was using his personal phone to conduct government business and decided that some of that data should be publicthe province moved to change access to information laws.
The move – which the government has claimed is simply about improving outdated legislation – will happen excluding the prime minister, his cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and all their staff BY freedom of information requirements.
In her submission to the government, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim urged the government to rethink its approach.
She said the changes would make Ontario less transparent, while also raising major security concerns by implicitly allowing the widespread use of personal emails and phones to make public decisions.
“Allowing them to conduct government-related business on their personal email accounts and devices significantly increases the risk of privacy breaches and cyberattacks,” Kosseim wrote.
“These risks are further amplified when they keep these personal email accounts and devices after they leave the government.”
Successive rulings by the IPC and then an Ontario court that Ford’s personal phone should be subject to transparency rules hinged on the question of who had “control” over the data, Ford as a private citizen or the government.
Get daily national news
Get Canada’s daily news delivered to your inbox so you never miss the top news of the day.
These decisions essentially focus on whether a record relates to government business and who should be in charge of it, rather than who physically owns it.
In the case of Ford’s phone, the court ruled against the government and said that because Ford was using his personal phone for government business, it should be under the “control” of the province.
The wording of Ontario’s new freedom of information changes is written to include similar language — specifically stating that data under the “control” of a cabinet minister or their staff cannot be released.
Kosseim said the change would make the province more secretive and less transparent than any other part of the country, including areas the government claims to be in compliance with.
“By exempting this data from (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy) altogether, even if it relates to government business and is considered to be under the ‘control’ of a ministry, the bill would set Ontario’s legislation apart from the rest of the country,” she wrote.
“Exempting the ‘control’ test would make Ontario’s FIPPA less transparent than even the federal law.”
While the Ontario Liberals and NDP have vowed to rescind the changes if elected, the commissioner said if the measures pass, they are likely to be permanent.
“The comprehensive exclusion of all records of the prime minister, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and their staff would apply retroactively to 1988,” Kosseim wrote.
“Once the right to access this data is removed, it will be very difficult to restore. This raises serious concerns about the state of Ontarians’ information rights and independent oversight.”
While Prime Minister Ford has said that only the media and his political opponents care about restrictions on existing freedom of information laws, recent polls have found that most oppose the changes.
research performed by Abacus Data On behalf of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, it found that only 24 percent of respondents support the new changes, while 60 percent are against them. A separate poll by Liaison Strategies found that 65 percent of respondents opposed retroactively changing freedom of information laws.
The government did not respond to questions ahead of publication, but has repeatedly said its changes are about modernizing access to information rules.
Asked why Ontario was going further than other jurisdictions in excluding data, Stephen Crawford, minister for public and business service delivery and procurement, questioned the role of the information and privacy commissioner.
“In terms of the IPC, the privacy commissioner, I mean, her word is not gospel.” he said before.
“As you probably know, she lost a court case in 2024 when she basically challenged the government on cabinet confidentiality, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in her words.”
The government has also lost several court cases, including the latest loss on the release of Ford’s cellphone files.
Changes to freedom of information laws are included in the government’s budget bill, which will go to committee after it passes second reading.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
