Ontario’s transparency restrictions had been law for roughly three weeks when senior civil servants received a Microsoft Teams message telling them to put down their pens and institute a total freeze on processing all freedom of information (FOI) requests.

“This pause also includes key decisions and release steps in the FOI process, such as collecting records or advancing records for approval or disclosure,” part of the message read.

On April 24, the Ford government’s 2026 budget received Royal Assent, passing into law sweeping changes to how freedom of information works in Ontario. The changes excluded the premier, his cabinet and all their staff from disclosing records to the public.

The government implemented the new law, which the Information and Privacy Commissioner said at the time “would diminish the public’s right to information,” immediately.

The rush prompted widespread confusion, giving civil servants almost no time to get to grips with the first major changes to transparency legislation in four decades.

Then, three weeks later, on May 14, an unprecedented total pause on transparency work was implemented and kept in place for more than a week.

Using freedom of information laws, Global News obtained the Microsoft Teams conversations where the pause was communicated, leading to widespread concern and confusion among senior civil servants.

“We are at a complete standstill on ALL of our FOI requests even if they don’t include political staff records?” one senior freedom of information coordinator asked in response to the freeze.

They were told that was “consistent” with the messaging received from deputy ministers.

When news of the pause broke publicly, critics said it was evidence the government was changing transparency laws to “obliterate access to any information,” while Premier Doug Ford said nobody cared.

“You know who FOIs? The media party, they’re obsessed with it,” he claimed in May.

“We’re duplicating what the federal government is doing, simple. We were an outlier. I should have done this eight years ago, but I didn’t. The media party can focus on that, I’m going to focus on job creation.”

The request to pause freedom of information requests across government came on the afternoon of May 14, when the government’s director of privacy, access and cyber security said officials needed more time to come up with guidance on how the transparency changes would work.

“As you know, (the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement) is leading the development of centralized communications and guidance to support implementation of the Bill 97 amendments to FIPPA and MFIPPA,” the director wrote. “We expect the guidance to be finalized within the next few days.”

The message reveals the province was still working out how to implement the new freedom of information rules, which had been announced two months earlier and officially became law three weeks before the message was sent.

Before the law passed, the Ford government had opted to bypass debate and committee hearings on the changes, rushing them into force without traditional cross-party scrutiny and debate.

The messages seen by Global News show the total pause caught many senior civil servants by surprise. Some suggested the move was the opposite of what they had been told earlier, while others raised questions about how a total pause in freedom of information operations would work.

“This will significantly impact the entire (Ontario Public Service’s) compliance rate,” one official worried in a group chat. “Only two to four per cent of our FOIs include the records of political staff.”

Later, they followed up: “With all due respect, some ministries have dozens of requests due on any given day.”

Others said the direction was too broad, insisting there must be a mistake.

“I can’t believe this is the intent – to put a hold on all work in the FOI community,” another civil servant wrote. “Can you double-check… This doesn’t seem right … the impact across all ministries is too large.”

One official with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, which deals with thousands of routine information requests, said the pause would be unsustainable.

“I have a huge concern with putting ‘all’ FOI request decisions on hold. I release an average of 150 decisions weekly. 40% of them have no records and the 60% have records,” they wrote.

“If we are looking at a hold of a couple of 1-2 days, that is doable, but longer than that will impact our operations.”

The message also raised concerns for civil servants because of how it was delivered.

Rather than being sent by email or through a memo, as direction is generally communicated in government, it was dropped into a cross-department Microsoft Teams group chat.

“Can you please provide this direction in an email,” one civil servant requested.

The request was echoed by their colleagues.

“Yes, I need this in writing to stop mine or my team’s work,” one wrote. Another said, “This will be critical for us since we have a decentralized approach to processing requests.”

The requests were flatly denied.

“There won’t be anything coming in email,” the director wrote the day after the Microsoft Teams message was first sent.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement told Global News in a statement that Microsoft Teams was an accepted, official communications channel.

“Microsoft Teams is an approved enterprise collaboration platform and is used across ministries. The platform meets the Ontario Public Service’s information management and security requirements,” they wrote in a statement.

“The government will continue to uphold the public’s right of access to records and ensure that we meet the highest standards in implementing the amendments to FIPPA.”

Despite the initial promise, the pause was not only in place for a few days.

“As we are now a week into the FOI pause, our staff are starting to receive voicemail and email messages from requestors (mostly media) asking for an update on their requests,” one coordinator wrote.

“Do we have any key messaging that can be given for staff to use to respond to these inquiries?”

The director of privacy, access and cyber security, however, told transparency staff the pause would continue.

“Folks – sit tight,” one reply read.

The freeze was eventually lifted on May 22, more than a week after hundreds of transparency requests across the government were frozen.

The government said in a statement it had always planned a “transition period” to the new system.

“Bill 97 updated Ontario’s access and privacy framework, including new complex provisions that required careful implementation,” they wrote.

“The amendments that introduced the FIPPA exclusion for Ministers, Ministers’ offices, Parliamentary Assistants, and Parliamentary Assistants’ offices contemplated a transition period.”