of Ford’s government appears to be silent on how much her years-long battle to protect the Prime Minister’s mobile phone records from publication has cost the taxpayer, as he moves to change the law and overturn the latest legal defeat.
Since 2022, provincial lawyers have worked around the clock to block efforts by Global News to access government calls that Ontario Premier Doug Ford makes and receives on his personal phone.
The province has acknowledged that Ford uses his personal phone to make government decisions, but has argued that revealing who he spoke to would breach the prime minister’s privacy.
Ontario’s transparency watchdog, however, disagreed with the government’s assessment and, in late 2025, ordered the premier to hand over his phone records to civil servants to decide which calls should be released.
The government refused and instructed its lawyers to seek a judicial review to overturn that decision. A panel of judges took less than three weeks to reject the request and order the prime minister to comply with transparency laws.
Now, the province is planning changes to Ontario’s freedom of information rules that could overturn the entire case, retroactively exempting the premier’s records from transparency rules.
However, how much the whole ordeal has cost the taxpayer remains unclear.
The Ministry of the Attorney General will not say how much time its in-house lawyers, or outside lawyers, have spent fighting before the Information and Privacy Commissioner or the Ontario divisional court.
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Global News asked the attorney general’s office a number of questions, including how much was spent on the appeal and legal battle or whether outside lawyers were hired.
Despite calls, emails and a message, no response was received prior to publication.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the public deserved to know how much time and money had been spent on the legal battle.
“This premier has no respect for taxpayer dollars. If he’s going to spend people’s hard-earned tax dollars to avoid accountability, he should at least share the price with Ontarians,” she wrote in a statement.
“Doug Ford is rewriting the rules to protect himself. If he has nothing to hide, why go to such lengths to stop those phone records from coming out? It’s pretty clear he’s worried about what we might find in those records.”
A 2024 freedom of information request by Global News suggested that, at that point, no outside counsel had been retained. In that case, the government again refused to share the cost.
The government has previously revealed the cost of its legal battles.
After conceding defeat on its wage cap legislation, Bill 124, the province conceded her efforts to cap public sector pay had cost her $4.3 million.
In that case, after losing twice in court, the government backed down. He settled with the 10 unions that took him to court and agreed to pay them $3.45 million in legal costs, a ministry spokesman confirmed in 2024.
The province also paid the firm Lenczner Slaght $856,482 for legal services related to the complaint.
In the fight to protect Ford’s cellphone data, however, the government has been silent.
Liberal MPP Stephanie Smyth said if taxpayers have funded efforts to keep Ford’s records secret, they deserve to know what it’s costing.
“If public money is used to wage a legal battle over the Prime Minister’s own mobile phone records, the public has every right to see the bill,” she wrote in a statement.
“But more importantly, I want to highlight the absurdity of the taxpayers being made to cover the cost of a Prime Minister’s lack of transparency. At a time when families are struggling with the cost of living, it is ridiculous that this government spends public dollars in court just to save itself from basic responsibility.”
– with file from The Canadian Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
