Ontario's freedom of information changes are law. Why experts say they could hurt the government

The realism of premiere Doug john ford’s changes to Ontario’s freedom of info scheme are beginning to take hold as rejections and denials make their way to requesters.

While strategists and academics say the controversial changes may allow the government to avoid the release of contentious material, it could also undermine trust in the Progressive Conservatives as examples emerge of once-public documents now being kept under wraps.

The Ford government announced the changes exempting the Premier, his cabinet, and their staff from FOI laws in March and passed the bill a month later. The law applied retroactively, killing requests already in the system and prompting a number of rejections.

“I don't know if there's a reason to restrict that information,” said York University public policy and administration professor Zac Spicer of Ford's calendar. 

“How I spend my day is something that is auditable by my employer, and the same goes for the Premier of Ontario, cabinet ministers and public servants writ large.”

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Spicer, who once worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, said while the FOI system can be cumbersome and complicated to administer, it does offer an important glimpse into the inner workings of taxpayer-funded government.

“When you purposely restrict access to things, you get the public asking why, and is this government hiding something?” he said. “What you lose is public trust.”

Ford has repeatedly defended the changes in recent months, saying the province is bringing its FOI system in-line with the federal government.

“We're duplicating what the federal government is doing,” he said last month. “We were an outlier. I should have done this eight years ago.”

But Ontario’s privacy commissioner has objected to the changes and disputes claims they will bring the province’s FOI system in line with other jurisdictions.

McMaster University political science professor Peter Graefe said the calendars give Ontarians a clear picture of who the premier is meeting with, and the ability to line that up with decisions his government is making.

“To the extent that so much power is now concentrated around the premier and the premier's office ... Knowing who the premier is meeting is really crucial in terms of making assessments of whether due process was followed or whether certain interests are getting preferential treatment," he said.

Conservative strategist Mitch Heimpel said the FOI system under the previous rules had loopholes and didn't capture every conversation or exchange over newer technologies.

“There were a lot of ways that very good staff, very talented political operators, knew how to get around FOI for governments dating back generations.”

Spicer said even civil servants, to which the legislation still applies, are mindful that their work is captured by the FOI process. They craft their emails and reports knowing that they may be released to the public and know how to avoid it, he said.

“FOIs don't capture conversations on the phone and in restaurants and coffee shops,” he said. “Public servants understand that. So, sometimes even if you get something via an FOI, it is only the information that's on the table and not the information that is being funneled beneath it.”

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But Heimpel, who once worked for the Ford government, said increasing rejections to FOI requests of things like Ford's calendar could have an impact.

“I think something like the calendar causes people to ask questions because it's a tangible object,” he said.

Former Liberal cabinet minister John Milloy said the FOI changes could pose a political danger for the Ford government by giving voters the impression the government is secretive and out of touch.

Taken in combination with the private jet purchase and reversal, the controversy of over OSAP cuts and the premier’s own softening polling, the FOI changes paint a negative picture of the PCs, he said.

“It's a pattern. If it was just changes to the FOI legislation, I think most ordinary Ontarians have more important things to worry about,” said Milloy, who is now director of the Centre for Public Ethics at Martin Luther University College.

"But over time, even though it's sort of background noise, it starts to have an impact on Ontarians.”

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