Premier, cabinet ministers’ records could become secret in new FOI, cybersecurity bill | CBC News
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Ontario is set to make Premier Doug Ford and cabinet members’ records secret as it “modernizes” freedom of information laws.
Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Minister Stephen Crawford says the province is also updating its cybersecurity protections.
Crawford says the changes will help protect cabinet confidentiality.
He says the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act has not been updated in nearly 40 years.
Crawford says that presents unnecessary privacy risks for the government and the public.
The province will also lengthen freedom-of-information response timelines.
The changes will make it “impossible” to uncover the government’s role in the Greenbelt scandal or the allocation of a private spa at Ontario Place, said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles.
“Doug Ford is changing the rules so he can hide the truth from Ontarians,” she said in a post on social media. ” An honest government doesn’t change the rules to hide from the public. But Doug Ford’s government does.”