As Ontario Premier Doug Ford sat down for a fireside chat at Toronto’s Empire Club in June, he gestured to a bank of broadcast television cameras in the back of the room and briefly paused to consider what he was about to say.
“Is this live on TV?” Ford asked, before immediately dismissing his own concern. “It doesn’t matter,” he continued.
“I’m giving my cell number, everyone has it anyways.”
Ford then offered up a phone number, with a 647 area code, to a room full of lobbyists, business leaders and attendees with both private and public interests.
“It is the premier’s personal cell phone number,” a government document sent to Global News as part of an ongoing freedom of information appeal confirmed.
While Ford has made accessibility part of his personal brand, handing his phone number out to voters and CEOs alike, new questions are being raised about who has direct access to the premier, who serves as the ultimate decision-maker in Canada’s most populated province.
Those questions have been given new weight after the stinging Greenbelt report from Ontario’s auditor general revealed who has direct and informal access to the Ford government.
Global News files freedom of information request
In an attempt to gain insight into the premier’s government-related phone calls, Global News requested a copy of the call log for Ford’s private cellphone number during a one-week period in November 2022.
The request, however, was denied by government officials on the basis that it was Ford’s personal number and had nothing to do with government business.
“Cabinet Office does not have physical possession of any records related to the Premier’s personal cell phone number, including any call logs,” officials wrote in their response.
In addition, officials also argued that any suggestion that the premier uses his personal cellphone for government work is “speculative” and “hypothetical.”
Staff claimed Ford has a “clear expectation of privacy” around his personal phone and said any request for the records was “unreasonable and unwarranted.”
What was made clear by government officials was Ford did not use his government-issued cellphone to make a single phone call during that one-week period in November.
“In this case, the phone bills indicate that there were no calls during the billing periods in question,” a senior privacy staffer with the cabinet office told Global News of Ford’s government device.
At the time the government was facing tremendous backlash over its decision to impose a contract on education support workers using the notwithstanding clause. Ford later backed down and rescinded the legislation after the premier said he had been “on the phone all night… returning calls.”
Global News is appealing the government’s attempts to keep the premier’s call logs a secret. Communications staff in Ford’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s former three-time Information and Privacy Commissioner, told Global News Ford’s use of his personal cellphone for government business leaves taxpayers with a transparency black hole.
“To only have one cellphone that protects everything is, to me, completely unacceptable because it means your government-related activity cannot be accessed,” she said. “There’s no visibility — there’s no transparency.”
Ford’s political critics underscored the issue of transparency, especially given the government’s controversial changes to the Greenbelt.
“I think Ontario … has many questions about who this premier has been talking to,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife.
Doug Ford and his cellphone
Accessibility has been part of the Ford political brand for decades.
Before he was elected Premier of Ontario, when he still sat on Toronto city council, Ford, and his late brother Rob, were known for their retail politics. The pair would hand out their phone numbers to residents, local businesses and anyone who needed quicker access to elected representatives.
When Ford became leader of the Progressive Conservatives and eventually premier, he kept the same number and the same style of retail politics.
“We’re focused, again, on making sure that we take care of the grassroots people,” Ford told the Ontario legislature in March 2019. “They don’t need access to Doug Ford. They call me on my cellphone. I get hundreds of calls a day. I return their phone calls.”
On a trip to Washington D.C. as Ontario premier, Ford gave out his number during an event broadcast on television, urging people to text him because of the large volume of messages he receives.
“I think that the premier really has put his cellphone at the centre of the public service,” Fife told Global News. “He has been very vocal about giving his number out, saying, ‘If you need help, reach me on my cellphone, call me.’”
The premier, however, has also made his cellphone a key part of how he governs.
Ford has said he receives nightly phone calls from his economic development minister with status updates on Ontario’s economy and speaks to and texts mayors about government decisions including the dissolution of Peel Region.
Recently, Ford helped to negotiate a multi-billion dollar provincial investment to keep the Stellantis in Windsor — some of which was done in late-night phone calls.
“Premier Ford… and I exchanged happy text messages this morning, we had some middle-of-the-night phone conversations to get there — and when I say middle of the night, I really do mean 1:30 in the morning,” said federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland of her conversations with Ford.
At the recent Empire Club speech, Ford told attendees they could reach him via text message and explained that Patrick Sackville, his chief of staff, helps him to manage the messages and requests he receives on his personal phone.
“We’re up to midnight going back and forth,” Ford said.
“If your family needs help, you need help, your business needs help, send it over to me,” he continued, “Give me a few hours or the next morning, but I get back to every single person.”
Blurring the boundaries in government
Premier Ford’s use of his personal phone comes as his administration faces renewed scrutiny over its relationship with developers.
A blistering report into a decision to remove 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt released by Ontario’s auditor general laid out just how much access a few developers have to the Ontario government.
The report gave an example of the relationship, explaining how two “prominent developers” had given a top Queen’s Park political staffer packages containing information about Greenbelt sites they wanted to see removed, the report said.
“The Chief of Staff sat at the same dinner table with one of these two developers,” the auditor general wrote. The chief of staff told the auditor general he had a “stack” of similar requests in his office.
The developers at the event ended up with 92 per cent of the land removed from the Greenbelt, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk wrote.
The report said the influence of some lobbyists was so strong that their suggested amendments to legislation would be copied and pasted into a document that was “then forwarded on to Deputy Ministers for inclusion in legislative packages.”
Ford has also faced questions about his close relationship with developers after his office described some as his “personal friends” in a statement to Ontario’s integrity commissioner.
“The fact that we haven’t been able to access what’s on that phone, who he’s talking to, what deals he’s making, obviously is hugely concerning to us,” Fife said. “As the premier, as the leader of the province of Ontario, using a personal cellphone… is certainly a break in protocol.”
Government acknowledges improvement needed in managing records
In 2014, after facing political upheaval over the deletion of documents related to the gas plants scandal, the former Liberal government was forced to implement a new policy for the retention of records.
Freedom of information laws were amended to ensure that the “head of an institution” was responsible for ensuring that government records were retained and preserved.
“(It’s) very important, so you can piece together what took place a few years ago if you need to,” Cavoukian said. “You can put together the pieces. Otherwise, there’s no openness and transparency.”
During her Greenbelt investigation, the auditor general found political staff inside the Ford government were using personal email addresses to do government work and were “regularly” deleting emails.
“There were occasions when government emails were forwarded by political staff from their government accounts to their personal email accounts,” the report said.
On Monday, the province acknowledged its legal obligation to retain documents in a government-wide memo sent in response to the AG report.
“Please ensure adherence to records retention requirements, including the documentation of materials received by third parties and only use government emails for work related matters,” the memo read.
Global News is appealing the decision to deny access to Ford’s personal cellphone records. An adjudicator ruled the government should provide evidence to rebut the suggestion the premier is using his personal phone for government work.
The government has requested a month-long extension to respond.
Comments