OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is urging the Ford government to cancel its plan to hide government records by watering down freedom of information legislation.

“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 announced plans to change Ontario’s freedom of information laws to exclude records from the premier, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and their offices.

The changes would only allow Ontarians to request documents from civil servants.

The amended law would apply to all FOI requests, including all existing requests. 

The Ford government is also extending the FOI response timeline from 30 days to 45 days.

Ontario’s freedom of information law allows all Ontarians to request copies of government records unless they breach privacy for individuals.

FOI laws allow taxpayers to view government expense records, policy documents, reports, internal communications and more.

“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 taxpayer dollars.”

“Ford needs to backtrack on this outrageous attempt to dodge accountability by hiding government records from the people.”