Ontario’s transparency watchdog is urgently asking the government to explain an apparent freeze on all freedom of information work, after senior civil servants were told to pause all transparency requests.
A message sent to senior staff within the government’s access to information departments before the Victoria Day long weekend told them to stop releasing all official communications, sources told Global News.
Under Ontario law, freedom of information requests allow the public access to a wide variety of government information, which must be released on a set schedule for a fee.
Sources said the message had been sent via Microsoft Teams, rather than through an official memo, instructing a pause on all fee estimates, extensions, decision letters and the release of documents.
Global News is not naming the sources as they were not authorized to publicly discuss the freedom of information pause.
A spokesperson for the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, which oversees freedom of information requests, told Global News the government had not informed them about the pause.
They said the independent transparency watchdog had only learned about it through media reporting, which it was trying to verify.
“The IPC has not been notified of a freeze on processing freedom of information requests, and we are not aware of the facts underlying the Trillium media article,” they wrote in a statement, referencing the outlet that first broke the story.
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“An outright freeze on the processing of FOI requests, if there is one, would raise significant concerns about the public’s right of access to government-held information, transparency, and accountability.”
The spokesperson said they had reached out to the government, but hadn’t received a response.
“We will continue reaching out,” they added.
The total pause on transparency requests comes after the Ford government rewrote freedom of information rules to exclude all communications and other documents held by the premier, his cabinet and all of their political staff.
Those rules were tabled through the provincial budget in March, which was rushed past the committee hearings and into law through a late-night sitting.
The pause, Global News understands, is at least partly prompted by the confusion and questions the changes have created.
Government lawyers are still figuring out the finer details of how the law will be applied and how to fight potential appeals, meaning official guidance on how to interpret requests still isn’t ready.
Until that advice is drafted and approved, the freeze will likely remain in place.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the change was “outrageous” after other revisions had already been made to transparency laws.
“It sounds to me like a government that’s using the new legal changes — the changes that they made to hide their own records from the public’s view — that they’re using those changes as an excuse to obliterate access to any information now,” she said.
“What that means is less transparency, less accountability from a government that clearly has something to hide.”
Ontario Liberal interim leader John Fraser called the move a “shakedown” of the transparency system.
“Freedom of information is not optional,” he wrote in a statement. “It does not go on breaks. It is a right that belongs to every person in this province.”
The government did not respond to questions from Global News ahead of publication.
The effects of the undefined pause are unclear.
The government’s current freedom of information laws require responses to requests within 30 days; an order can be sought to force the ministry to comply if it doesn’t in time.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner’s office pointed out that appeals can be lodged for delayed requests.
“Ontarians have a right to access government-held information, to know how and why government decisions are made, and understand how taxpayer money is being spent on important matters affecting their lives,” they wrote.
“If institutions fail to respond to access requests within the timelines set out in the legislation, requesters have the right to appeal to the IPC.”
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