stop right now
Why Ontario should strengthen, not roll back, the Right to Information
The announcement by the Ontario government on 13 March 2026 of sweeping changes to the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), could reduce accountability, damage public trust, and forgo the wide-ranging benefits of strong right to information frameworks seen around the world. This briefing note highlights that the right to information is a foundational democratic principle as well as an operational tool with measurable governance benefits.
When information flows freely, officials make better decisions, waste is reduced, and problems are identified earlier. Strong access to information frameworks have been consistently linked to improved outcomes in service delivery and resource allocation, particularly at provincial and municipal level. Yet when key political offices are excluded from the jurisdiction of right to information laws, accountability fragments and oversight weakens. The incremental erosion of transparency via restrictions on the right to information can be very difficult to reverse.
The path forward for Ontario and Canada, should be not one of rollback but reinforcement of the right to information. The Ontario government should therefore withdraw these proposals.
