Ontario’s transparency watchdog is warning that the government is dodging its orders more frequently, including orders that would shed light on how a multi-billion dollar government fund pushed grants to supporters including one to an adult entertainment club. The watchdog, the Information and Privacy Commissioner, said it’s powerless to stop the evasion of its legal orders, because, unlike in other provinces, it’s unable to take those government agencies to court. “Recently and very unfortunately, our office has been seeing an increase of institutions’ non-compliance with our orders compared to historic trends,” said a spokesperson for the Information and Privacy Commissioner in a statement to CTV News. In one example, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour was ordered to respond by August 21 to nine freedom of information requests for records by CTV News relating to the operation of the Skills Development Fund that were initially filed in September 2025. The ministry has not responded. That is the same fund where recent reporting revealed troubling spending. The province sent over $100 million to clients of a lobbyist who managed Doug Ford’s campaign, millions to a company connected to the Ford family’s dentist, and $10 million to train workers at an adult entertainment club. The administration of the fund was found to be “not fair, transparent, or accountable” by Ontario’s auditor general, and one grant to a company whose director was seen at a hockey game with then-labour minister David Piccini prompted an investigation by Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner, which is still ongoing. When reached at his first news conference as the new labour minister, Trevor Jones said that the government had implemented recommendations from the auditor general, and planned to keep spending on skills development. “We’re going to make sure we invest appropriately and that every dollar is accounted for. Every taxpayer dollar is respected,” Jones said. When asked about the evaded orders, the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery sent an unsigned statement that read, “The government will continue to comply with our obligations under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.” Those statements don’t match what the government is doing, said James Turk, the director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto’s Metropolitan University. “How can they say they’re complying with the law? It’s preposterous,” Turk said in an interview. “It’s a really boldly anti-democratic move. The foundation of democracy is that at the end of the day, the electorate has the ability to hold the government accountable. But it can only do that of his if it has access to access to information, which is why we have access to information laws,” he said. CTV News is not the only media outlet that has made requests for records related to the Skills Development Fund. Political news outlet The Trillium reported that it has spent $4,000 in fees and deposits required by the ministry to process the requests, and obtained a legal order from the Information and Privacy Commissioner in July, which the ministry has not followed. The IPC said in a statement that it can go to court if one of its orders is not followed when it comes to personal health information and information about child service providers. But it doesn’t have the same authority when it comes to freedom of information requests, the office said. That’s not the case in several other provinces, like B.C., where the watchdog can go to court. “However, even in the absence of this explicit statutory enforcement power, it is important to note that it is an offence for institutions and/or their delegates to wilfully fail to comply with an order of the IPC, which provides a strong incentive for institutions to meet their compliance obligations,” the IPC statement said. This issue with Ontario transparency is separate from the bill in April that retroactively gutted several provisions of its freedom of information laws, excluding the premier and political staff from their obligation to disclose records. That was in the wake of an order by the IPC to disclose records related to the Premier’s government phone use, which was upheld after challenges in the courts. Reached this week, opposition leaders said there was a common thread between each issue. “This is a government that has been hiding from accountability and transparency from day one when they were elected,” said Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles. “It’s bad news for the government. So they want to hide it,” said Ontario Liberal interim leader John Fraser.
