Dowie defends Ford government’s controversial FOI changes

Premier Doug Ford speaks with reporters at Queen's Park Tuesday March 24, 2026.

The Ford government is plowing ahead with derided changes to Ontario’s Freedom-of-Information (FOI) laws and skipping the usual public hearings legislation receives at Queen’s Park.

After tabling its 2026 budget late last month, government house leader Steve Clark has now proposed the controversial changes that would weaken public access to government records, and retroactively protect the premier and cabinet from scrutiny, will bypass committee debate as part of an omnibus bill.

“We need to strike the right balance between the need to know, which is largely unaffected with these changes,” Andrew Dowie, the MPP for Windsor—Tecumseh (PC), told CTV News at an unrelated announcement today.

“95 per cent of today’s requests is unchanged. These are specific to the political level, call it akin to in-camera conversations that a municipal council has.”

The changes to the FOI law would prevent public access to documents from Premier Ford and his cabinet ministers, as well as their offices, with the premier publicly admitting the move was in part a response to an effort from Global News to obtain his cellphone records over concerns of government business conducted on his personal phone.

“The decisions of the civil service, the actions that are taken from decisions, will be very, very transparent,” said Dowie.

“I think in any organization, your personal phone is your personal phone and government stuff is one thing,”

While updates to FOI processes contained in the bill have received applause from municipal groups like the AMCTO, despite some persistent timeline and funding concerns, the blanket lock-up of cabinet-level records has received widespread pushback.

“This is a clear attempt by the Ford government to weaken transparency and avoid accountability,” said Lisa Gretzky, the MPP for Windsor West (NDP), in an emailed response to a CTV News question.

“Ontarians have a right to know how decisions are being made, especially at a time when families are being asked to pay more and get less.”

The budget bill received second reading and could be passed as soon as next week.

‘Shocking’ move

The initial announcement on March 13 was called “shocking” by Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, who slammed the move as anti-democratic.

“This amendment is about hiding government-related business to evade public accountability,” said Patricia Kosseim, in her statement released following the announcement.

“By changing the law retroactively, the government’s message is plain: If oversight bodies get in the way, just change the rules.”

Kosseim stressed FOI laws provide Ontarians with “vital information” about government decisions, who influences them, and how the public interest is being best served.

Stephen Crawford, the minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement, said the changes would “modernize” Ontario’s cyber security and privacy framework, as part of his mid-March announcement.

“We’re following the Westminster tradition of cabinet; confidentiality,” Crawford said.

“This legislation … will keep confident cabinet confidentiality, so any interactions of the Executive Council members amongst themselves will be confidential, and I think that’s in the best interest of the people, so that we can have candid conversations, important discussions, without any potential blowback.”

Commissioner Kosseim stressed in her statement that the current laws already protect personal, confidential, and constituency records from disclosure.

Gretzky calls shielding the premier and cabinet from public scrutiny a step in the wrong direction.

“That undermines public trust and quite literally takes us in the wrong direction,” said Gretzky.

CTV News did not receive responses to its questions from fellow area Progressive Conservative MPP’s Anthony Leardi, Trevor Jones, or Steve Pinsonneault.