Ontario's Freedom of Information Act overhauled: ministers' records excluded, new staged-access rules, longer response times, and data integration changes

Plain-language summary · AI-assisted · not legal advice

Ontario has made sweeping changes to its Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Most significantly, records held by ministers of the Crown or their offices are now excluded from the Act entirely, with this exclusion applied retroactively — even existing access requests and prior orders are nullified to the extent they relate to such records. For large or complex information requests, institutions can now propose a staged access plan, pausing the response clock while the requester considers it; requesters who do not respond to a plan within 30 business days are deemed to have abandoned their request. The standard response window for access decisions changes from 30 calendar days to 45 business days, and most other time limits throughout the Act are converted from calendar days to business days. The personal information bank regime (the obligation to maintain and publish an index of personal information collections) is repealed. In the data integration sphere, responsibility for setting data standards shifts from the Privacy Commissioner to the Chief Digital and Data Officer, though the Commissioner gains a new formal power to comment and make recommendations on privacy implications. Institutions and requesters should review their internal processes for handling FOI requests, staged-access responses, appeal deadlines, and personal information cataloguing obligations.

Who this affects: Ontario government institutions subject to FIPPA · ministers of the Crown and their offices · individuals who have made or plan to make access-to-information requests · privacy and FOI compliance officers · data integration units and their members