The Independent Press Gallery (IPG) is condemning the Ontario government’s proposal to weaken freedom-of-information laws by shielding records from the offices of Doug Ford, cabinet ministers and their staff from public access.
Under proposed changes announced by Stephen Crawford, members of the public would no longer be able to request records from the premier’s office, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants or their offices. Requests would be limited to records held by civil servants.
The proposal would also extend the government’s response time to FOI requests from 30 days to 45 business days and apply retroactively to existing requests.
These changes would remove the offices where political decisions are actually made from the reach of transparency laws. Freedom-of-information laws are one of the most important tools journalists and citizens have to hold governments accountable.
Journalists routinely rely on FOI requests to obtain records about government spending, policy decisions, internal communications and political conduct. If politicians can exempt their own offices from public scrutiny, freedom-of-information becomes largely meaningless.
The Independent Press Gallery is calling on the Ontario government to abandon the proposal and preserve the public’s right to access government records created with taxpayer resources.
Sheila Gunn Reid
President, Independent Press Gallery of Canada
info@independentpressgallery.ca