The Supreme Court of Canada is set to deliver a ruling Friday morning over whether the Ford government’s mandate letters are subject to transparency laws.
The key court decision dates back to a freedom of information request that was made shortly after Ontario Premier Doug Ford was elected and that asked for the letters he wrote to each of his ministers, laying out their tasks.
The request, filed by CBC News, was denied by the government. The Information and Privacy Commission overruled that decision and ordered the province to release the letters, a decision the Ford government has now appealed all the way to the country’s top court.
In September, Global News obtained and verified copies of the 2018 mandate letters, releasing them as a series titled Mandated.
The letters promised to hold cabinet ministers accountable and included various instructions such as to “protect the Greenbelt,” “fundamentally” review Metrolinx and post savings by the second year of government.
The initial decision from the government to deny CBC News’ freedom of information request came on the grounds the mandate letters would “reveal the substance of deliberations of the Executive Council or its committees.”
The Information and Privacy Commissioner disagreed with that decision, finding the letters themselves would not reveal “the actual substance” of cabinet conversations.
A divisional court dismissed the attorney general’s application for judicial review, and the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the decision.
That prompted Ontario to take its case to the Supreme Court.
Speaking in Pickering, Ont., on Tuesday, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said he believed the principles of cabinet confidentiality remained key.
“We’ve been pretty clear, the premier’s been pretty clear, those are captured by cabinet confidentiality and we haven’t wavered from that position,” he said.
The court’s decision is expected around 9:45 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 2.
— with files from The Canadian Press