Opposition politicians at Queen’s Park will bring a motion Thursday in an attempt to force Ontario Premier Doug Ford to hand over his personal cellphone records.
The Ontario NDP has prepared an Opposition day motion calling for the Ford government to stop fighting to keep work-related calls on his personal phone secret.
Motions require majority support to pass through the house but can be used by opposition parties to draw attention to priority issues.
The province has been engaged in a months-long battle with Global News over Ford’s personal cellphone records since late 2022.
Most recently, in September, government lawyers admitted Ford was using the phone to conduct government business. Despite the admission, they continued to refuse to hand over information about who he was talking to through freedom of information laws.
Documents obtained by Global News show Ford failed to make a single call on his official government phone over four separate months, including at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“(Cabinet Office) acknowledges that the premier’s personal cell phone number has been made publicly available on occasion and that he uses his personal cell phone,” a submission by government lawyers said.
The province said that since the premier is “always on-duty,” the calls he receives on his personal device can consist of a mix of family and government-related matters.
Government lawyers said Ford makes and receives phone calls related to his position as the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative caucus, a minister, head of the Executive Council and Cabinet and Premier of Ontario — much of which would constitute government business.
The motion the NDP is set to bring to the legislature on Thursday calls on Ford to end his fight to protect those calls and allow the documents to be released.
The NDP’s motion argues that Ford has “admitted that he regularly uses his personal phone to conduct government business and those communications might be relevant to these inquiries.”
The words are a reference to an ongoing police investigation into the government’s Greenbelt scandal and other watchdog reports at Queen’s Park.
The motion calls on Ford to “cease his access to information appeal and disclose the contents of his personal phone and email accounts to the Information and Privacy Commissioner.”
Speaking after the motion, which will be debated on Monday, was presented, Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she would continue to push for transparency.
“What do they have to hide?” she said. “It’s pretty clear that they are trying to hide something and I’m more and more certain of it because they keep digging themselves deeper and deeper into this.”
Opposition motions generally have a relatively low chance of success since it is the Progressive Conservatives and not the NDP who hold the majority of votes in Ontario.
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