Premier Doug Ford’s government is preparing one of the most consequential access-to-information rollbacks in Ontario politics by carving the premier’s office, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and their offices out of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
The change was announced Friday by Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Minister Stephen Crawford as part of a broader package the government framed as a modernization of privacy, cyber security and access rules.
The legislation is to be introduced when the legislature resumes on March 23, 2026.
In the government’s public release, Crawford said Ontario was “modernizing Ontario’s privacy protections and bringing the province’s technology practices into the 21st century,” while the province said the changes would “strengthen cyber security, protect cabinet confidentiality and ensure responsible modern governance.”
The substantive shift sits in the exemption itself. Ontario said the bill would exclude records of the premier, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and their offices from FIPPA, arguing the province lacks “explicit protections” for records belonging to cabinet ministers or their offices. The government said that weakens the clarity of protection around cabinet decision-making and undermines the confidentiality and candidness of discussions between ministers and their offices.
The government added “robust FOI requirements will remain in place,” particularly for direction flowing from ministers and their offices to the public service, meaning formal decisions and instructions transmitted into the bureaucracy would still face disclosure rules. But records generated and held inside the political offices at the top of government would be removed from the public’s regular FOI path.
In addition, Ontario said it will update FOI timelines and terminology and provide “more flexibility” for large-volume and complex requests. The default deadline moves from 30 days to 45 business days, giving institutions additional processing time and giving requesters a longer wait.
The Ford Progressive Conservatives are in their third term, and the proposal is arriving at the start of the 2026 sitting calendar, with the House scheduled to meet from March 23 through December 10, subject to breaks. That gives the government runway to legislate the change and embed it in Ontario’s access system this year.
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