Ontario to limit use of FOI requests

The provincial government plans to introduce new legislation that it says will modernize its privacy laws, to bring them into the modern era.

The new rules promise better data protection and protection for children.

But the new rules will also exclude the premier, cabinet ministers, and their staffers from Freedom of Information (FOI) rules granting the public access to behind-the-scenes discussions and records.

The changes were announced at a press conference on Friday led by Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Stephen Crawford.

“We’re moving forward with a clear, balanced, and future-ready package of reforms, starting with protecting the integrity of cabinet decision-making,” Crawford announced.

The minister framed the changes as a way to bring the province’s rules in line with the rest of the country when it comes to cabinet confidentiality.

Asked by reporters if the government had something to hide, Crawford insisted that “this government has probably one of the most transparent governments in the history of Ontario.”

The new changes will be applied retroactively to past records from cabinet ministers and the premier, which raises questions for ongoing court proceedings involving the Ontario government, such as the Greenbelt scandal.

At the press conference, Crawford repeatedly pointed out that the law had not been updated in 40 years, stating that when the old provincial privacy laws were written, smartphones, cyberthreats, and cloud computing did not exist.

When reporters asked Crawford of the connection between smartphones and cabinet confidentiality, he replied that “smartphones have everything to do with cabinet confidentiality because smartphones didn’t exist when the legislation that we’re changing today was written.”

On being asked to elaborate, Crawford simply repeated that smartphones, cloud computing, and cyber threats did not exist in the 1980’s.