Resources
For federal entities: Access to Information Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. A-1)
Provincial mandate letters are secret
For provincial governments, Ministers, and their creations:
For Cities in Ontario:
Global News video: ‘Mandated’: A new Global News series on the Ford government’s first set of mandate letters
Global News story: Premier Doug Ford’s 2018 mandate letter promised to hold cabinet ministers accountable
CBC News story: In 3 years, Crown lawyers spent 1,672 hours keeping Doug Ford's leaked mandate letters secret
CBC News story: Ford's senior officials hoped to keep mandate letters away from public view 'as long as possible'
CBC News: Future access to information could be at stake, as top court mulls Doug Ford's mandate letter appeal
"Ford's government, however, has been fighting to keep his mandate letters from the public since shortly after he was first elected nearly five years ago. CBC Toronto filed a freedom of information request for the records in July 2018. The government denied access in full, arguing the letters were exempt from disclosure as cabinet records.
But Ontario's former information and privacy commissioner disagreed and ordered the government to release the letters in 2019. The province has since lost appeals of that decision in Divisional Court and at the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Ford's government was granted leave to appeal to Canada's top court — its final option to prevent disclosure — last May." from CBC News
Ontario Government site:
Court Decisions:
Freedom of Information Commissioner, Ontario decision 2019-07-15:
Cabinet Office (Re), 2019 CanLII 76037 (ON IPC), <https://canlii.ca/t/j208t>
Ontario (Attorney General) v. Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2022 ONCA 74 (CanLII), <https://canlii.ca/t/jm1dr>
"At issue in this appeal is whether the public is entitled to access the mandate letters provided to Cabinet ministers by the Premier of Ontario following the formation of the new government after the 2018 provincial election.
[2]A journalist with the CBC requested access to the 23 letters sent by the newly elected Premier, Doug Ford, to Ontario’s Cabinet ministers who, together with him, comprise the Executive Committee, commonly known as the Cabinet.
[3]Cabinet Office refused the CBC’s request. The CBC appealed the refusal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (the “IPC”). Mediation did not resolve the issues and so the parties proceeded to the adjudication stage, where they engaged in a lengthy process of written submissions."
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