Ford government passes budget that lets premier and ministers keep office records secret

The Ford governments budget bill has passed after it faced stiff opposition regarding changes to Freedom of Information legislation.

The Ford government has passed a spring budget that includes provisions to let the premier and his cabinet ministers keep all their office records secret.

The spring budget changes Freedom of Information laws retroactively as well, meaning Ontario Premier Doug Ford would no longer have to comply with a court order to release his cellphone records.

The government used its majority to fast-track the bill and skip public hearings.

Votes were counted in the legislature as citizens in the gallery loudly chanted “F-O-I” to protest the legislation. It passed 57-33.

The FOI changes were first announced back in March and followed the loss of a court battle over access to Ford’s phone records.

The premier regularly gives out his personal cellphone number to the public and uses the device to conduct government business.

A court ruled in January that Ford must release logs of government-related calls made on his cellphone to comply with a Freedom of Information Request filed by Global News and supported by the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Ford refused to release the records, citing confidentiality with constituents, even though FOI requests are already redacted to hide personal information.

The government called a late-night session at Queen’s Park Thursday, paving the way for them to give the legislation a final vote Thursday, the last day the government is in session before breaking to spend a week with constituents.

Opposition parties at Queen’s Park have expressed outrage over the legislation, pointing out that the public only learned about problems — like the Greenbelt scandal, the government accidentally releasing dozens of prisoners and other missteps — through FOI laws.

“By lunchtime today, it will be law and it will be retroactive. I know you know what that means, premier — retroactive laws, retroactively,” Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said in Question Period Thursday. “So there must be something really, really, really bad on your cellphone.”

Ford defended the move, insisting it’s about keeping constituent matters private rather than keeping the public from learning who he’s talking to when it comes to government business.

“No premier in the history of this country has given his cell number out to actually help people to talk to them about confidential information,” Ford said during Question Period. “And I’m sure if I told these people, ‘I’m going to post everything that you gave me,’ I’d have more lawsuits than you could shake a stick at because it’s confidential.”

The $244.2-billion budget was tabled at the end of March and includes a number of other measures as well.

It merges the province’s conservation authorities, caps ticket resale prices, extends the One Fare program and gives a tax cut to small businesses.