Between July 2018 and July 2021, Ontario Crown lawyers dedicated 1,672 taxpayer-funded hours to the province’s case to keep Premier Doug Ford’s now-leaked mandate letters secret.
That figure adds up to 209 eight-hour work days, or about 10 months of 40-hour work weeks, within three years.
Mandate letters traditionally lay out the marching orders a premier has for his or her ministers after taking office — and are routinely released by governments across the country.
But the Ford government has gone to great lengths to keep the premier’s 2018 letters secret by appealing court orders to disclose the records all the way up to Canada’s top court. Despite those efforts, Global News reported Monday that one of its reporters was leaked a copy of all 23 of Ford’s 2018 mandate letters.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Less than a week before a June 20 judicial review hearing, the government dropped its appeal of a decision from Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) ordering it to disclose the number of hours to CBC Toronto, and it provided the figure by email.
Shortly after Ford was first elected, CBC Toronto filed a freedom of information (FOI) request for his mandate letters to Cabinet ministers.
The government’s argument to keep the letters secret hinges on what’s commonly referred to as the Cabinet records exemption in Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).
“The premier is failing to abide by his own mandate letters by the nature of his $8.3 billion Greenbelt scandal,” said Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner.
The Ontario privacy commissioner’s initial decision, and all of the court rulings so far in this case, have supported a narrower interpretation of the boundaries of cabinet secrecy, which differentiates between deliberations and their results.
“As we await a final decision from the Supreme Court of Canada, we believe the fact Global News is already in possession of the letters is a positive development to ensure public scrutiny of the government and its operations.”
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