TORONTO — The Ontario government says it will introduce legislation that would exempt the premier, cabinet ministers and their offices from responding to freedom of information requests.Under the proposed changes, documents and emails related to decision-making within those offices would not be subject to the province’s freedom of information laws.In a summary released Friday, the government said Ontario is one of the only provinces that currently requires the premier’s office and ministers’ offices to comply with freedom of information rules. Those rules allow citizens, journalists and advocacy groups to request government records.The proposed legislation follows the government’s loss in a court case concerning call logs from Premier Doug Ford’s personal cellphone, which he uses for government business.In January, a court sided with the province’s Information and Privacy Commissioner and ordered the records to be released. The case was originally launched by Global News.The Ontario government has said it plans to appeal the decision..The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is urging the Ford government to cancel their plan to hide government records from the public.“Premier Doug Ford is trying to hide records from the public and roll back the ability of everyday taxpayers from holding the government accountable,” said Noah Jarvis CTF Ontario Director. “What is Ford and his cabinet trying to hide?”The Ford government is also extending the FOI response timeline from 30 days to 45 days.Ontario’s Freedom of Information law allows everyday Ontarians to request copies of government records, exempting records that would violate an employee or resident’s privacy.“Every document the government produces belongs to the taxpayers because taxpayers fund the government and it is supposed to serve the people,” said Jarvis. “Politicians only want to hide documents from taxpayers if they’re doing something wrong or wasting a ton of taxpayer dollars.”"Ford needs to backtrack on this outrageous attempt to dodge accountability by hiding government records from the people."
