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CENTRAL MANITOULIN—It is not all that often that municipalities express concern and/or opposition to provincial legislation not directly impacting their communities, but the recent passage of a Ford government bill restricting Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, retroactively, from accessing Premier Doug Ford’s private phone records (and those of his cabinet) has drawn the ire of Central Manitoulin council. The bill in question was rushed through the legislature and into law following a court decision ordering the release of the premier’s private cellphone records in the wake of the Greenbelt Scandal. The court determined that the premier had used his private cellphone for public business.

A motion calling on the government to rescind the legislation as it goes against both the spirit and the law of transparency so vital to the health of democracy.

“I’ve always been very open in this council,” said Councillor Derek Stephens. “Freedom of information needs to flow to the public and they have a right to the information and the motions and work that council is doing. But I really can’t understand why the Ontario government would want to deny that to the public. I know federal government’s been doing it in all sorts of motions. Then they expect us to be open and transparent. I think that this was very important for the people, and we need to be supporting it. We’re elected to represent people, and they should know what we’re doing.”