Months after election win, Doug Ford’s mandate letters still not finished
Months after securing his third majority government, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has yet to deliver mandate letters to his cabinet ministers, Global News has learned, raising internal questions about the apparent lack of direction from the premier’s office.
Ford, who called a snap election in January and asked voters for a new mandate to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, was handily re-elected on a campaign promise to “protect Ontario” from the impacts of tariffs.
While the premier unveiled his third-term cabinet on March 19, ministers and their staff are still waiting for a formal directive in the form of a mandate letter, according to multiple sources in government, with no firm timeline on when they’ll arrive.
The wait, one senior staffer said, was “honestly so painful,” particularly for non-critical ministries. While some ministries, the source said, “like health and energy are fine” because they have long-term plans, smaller departments appear to be having a “tougher” time with the lack of direction.
Senior staffers also told Global News that ministries typically use the summer months to create a policy roadmap based on the instructions received in the mandate letters — valuable planning time that has been hampered by the delay.
Other staffers told Global News some ministries appear to have overlapping responsibilities, “creating challenges on who’s responsible for what,” and that mandate letters would provide greater clarity for ministries.
Critics say the lack of mandate letters is a sign that the premier “doesn’t know” what he wants to do.
“Four months in after getting reelected with a mandate that the premier asked for, to not actually have a plan, it’s not acceptable,” said Liberal MPP John Fraser.
Letters offer broad and specific policy
In 2018, shortly after Ford first took office, government ministers were handed a multi-page letter outlining the premier’s vision for Ontario, how cabinet members were expected to conduct themselves, along with specific policy measures ministries were expected to pursue.
Those letters, obtained exclusively by Global News, offered a number of bullet-point policy items – some of which were outlined in the party’s election platform, along with other policies never revealed to voters.
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Andrew Sidnell, who once served as Ford’s deputy chief of staff and head of policy in the premier’s office, told Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner that not all the measures outlined in the mandate letter were acted on and that some could be dropped after internal negotiations.
“You go back and forth, and then some of those things eventually are either too ambitious or they get cut off the list for impracticality reasons. Or, they do move forward and the minister will come back with a plan to actually implement them,” Sidnell told the Integrity Commissioner.
In 2022, for example, then-housing minister Steve Clark was instructed to look for “swaps, expansions, contractions” in Ontario’s Greenbelt — a directive that eventually led to a scandal for the government.
Still, John Fraser, who once served as a parliamentary assistant in the former Liberal government, said the letters are of vital importance to newly elected ministers.
“What it does is it helps you focus on what the most important task you have in your ministry, the goals that you have to achieve,” Fraser said. “If you don’t have goals, if you do not have priorities, how do you actually get the outcomes that you want?”
While mandate letters are typically worked on during the election campaign periods by the premier’s policy team, the dynamic 2025 political timeline and subsequent staff departures appear to have thrown a wrench into the plan.
Sources, speaking confidentially, told Global News the planning snap provincial election, the federal election and the constant tariff-related twists and turns from U.S. President Donald Trump led to frequent interruptions in the letter-writing process.
Then, in late spring, Ford lost two senior staffers who would have been heavily involved in the creation and content of the mandates to ministers.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said much of the political landscape — from Trump’s tariffs to the Prime Minister — has remained unchanged since the February election.
“It just highlights that this government has no direction and that the election they called was about politics, not about people,” Schreiner said.
While some government sources said they expect the letters will be delivered in the next few weeks, the premier’s office didn’t offer an official timeline.
Legislation tabled regardless
Meanwhile, the government has already tabled multiple pieces of legislation — including the controversial bill to create special economic zones in Ontario — and delivered a budget without written direction from the premier.
While sources said much of that work was done in collaboration with the premier’s office, NDP Leader Marit Stiles questioned other decisions being made by cabinet without prior instruction.
“We’ve had the education minister [take over] four of the biggest school boards in the province and put them under supervision,” Stiles said. “We don’t even know the direction that the premier has provided.”
“It’s actually like they’re all freelancing out there while big sweeping decisions are happening that could impact generations of Ontarians,” Stiles added.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Ontario Provincial Police are set to host a town hall in Quadeville, Ont., this evening to answer questions from residents about an attack on an eight-year-old child that was initially linked to an animal.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy in the case and he faces charges of attempted murder and sexual assault with a weapon.
Members of the small community 170 kilometres west of Ottawa say they were in shock after hearing about the arrest and hope to get clarity at today’s event in the town’s community centre.
Local resident Christine Hudder says she wants to know how police came up with the animal attack theory and why families were told for days to keep their children indoors.
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The victim was found with life-threatening injuries on June 24 after she was reported missing, and remains in hospital.
Police say they are planning to give as much information as possible to locals given that an investigation is still underway.
A Burlington, Ont., mother was unsettled to discover that an old photo of her children had been used in a fraudulent GoFundMe that attempted to elicit donations in connection the recent Texas floods.
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to say that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
“She reached out to me and she was like, ‘Hey, here’s a link to a GoFundMe. Sorry this has happened to you, but obviously a picture of your kids has been used without your consent and it’s being used for a GoFundMe to raise money, to help a family dealing with the Texas floods,’” she said.
Cole explained that the fake GoFundMe, which has since been removed by the company, was looking for donations to support a widowed mother of six kids in connection.
At least 120 people have died while more than 100 others remain unaccounted for as a result of the flooding, including 27 children and councilors from Camp Mystic.
“They were trying to raise $40,000 because of the three daughters had been victims of the Texas floods,” Cole said. “And the way it was presented felt very much like they were part of maybe that girl’s camp.”
Julie Cole told Global News that a friend had contacted her on social media to make that an old photo of her six children was being used in an attempt to collect ill-gotten gains.
Provided
Cole said once the listing was sent to her, she immediately contacted GoFundMe to get the fundraiser taken down.
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By Wednesday morning, the company had done so and in a statement to Global News, GoFundMe said that the fundraiser did not receive any donations and the account has been banned from creating any further fundraisers on the platform.
“GoFundMe has the most robust donor protection processes of any platform of our kind. We have round the clock trust and safety support, humans and technology making sure funds will get to where they are intended,” the statement offered.
After contacting the company, Cole said she shared the incident on her social media pages to raise awareness.
“So I did put it on my Facebook and I put it in my LinkedIn as like a heads-up learning experience kind of thing and there was a lot of outrage,” she said.
Cole also noted that while she is disappointed by the incident, she is well aware that her troubles are miniscule in comparison to those affected by the flooding.
“I do feel a little bit in myself that what I’m feeling is in no way comparable to what the actual families are feeling who have gone through the tragedies of the flooding,” she said.
The photo came from an old blog post she had written 16 years ago. Cole can date the picture as the baby in the photo is now getting ready to go for his driver’s test.
“I’m one of those, like, OG mommy bloggers from 20 years ago. So my kids have been on the internet. They have been sort of in the public eye,” she explained.
“And I know the risk is out there. And I think parents need to remember that, that their kids’ photos can be just screenshotted and used without consent. So there’s one lesson.
“I felt a little, well, very unsettled about it, particularly because of what it was being used for.”
In addition to being a parenting blogger, she also helped found Mabel’s Labels, which offers washable labels for kids clothing and other school items, in an effort to keep them out of the lost and found.
Julie Cole and her six kids in 2025.
Provided
Being a spokesperson for the company while raising six kids keeps her in the parenting sphere and she offered some other advice to parents about the images and social media.
“I think parents just have to be mindful and aware that once it’s out there, you know you’d like to think you’ll get consent or you’ll give consent if somebody asks or they want to use it, but people will just take it and they can just take,” she said.
“You have to be especially careful now with AI, because these photos can be altered.”
She also warned parents to check with their kids as they get older to see if they are OK with pics being posted and that people should be mindful of where they are sharing their donations.
“Another lesson out of this is people need to really be cautious and know where they’re putting their fundraising dollars,” Cole said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
ARC World may be a celebration of Asian culture, but organizer Clement Chu hopes that people from all backgrounds come and enjoy the one-day festival in downtown Toronto.
Food, shops, music and speakers will all be featured at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Kerr Hall on Saturday, with a celebrity basketball game including actor Simu Liu and former Toronto Raptors star Jeremy Lin the day’s finale. Chu said that there will be something for everyone, whether they have ties to Asia or not.
“The stories that some of these people are telling here, it’s not just necessarily about them being Asian but it’s a story of resilience,” he said in a recent phone interview. “These are stories that apply way beyond, the Asian community so we hope people get that out of it.
“We hope people come enjoy the things that come from our culture, whether it’s food or art or entertainment. More than anything else, we want to get young people out and volunteering and making contributions back to the community, because we feel a lot of that was lost during COVID.”
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Originally named the Chinese Canadian Youth Athletic Association, the Asian Roots Collective was founded 30 years ago by Chu and his friends to create a safe space to play basketball. Chu said that over time the organization’s mission has broadened to include people with connections to all of Asia and to encompass other “universal languages” that, like basketball, can bring people together even if there are other linguistic or cultural barriers.
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“We want to showcase all these things that are excellent, that are happening,” said Chu. “So we decided to change the direction of the organization a little bit, because we’re no longer just Chinese, we’re no longer just youth oriented programs, and we’re sure as heck not just athletics.
“We wanted to have a calling card that was more representative of what we’re doing. This year is the first year we’re launching ARC World, which is this convention where we’re celebrating all things Asian.”
The acronym ARC still reflects those roots in basketball, however.
“Because we come from basketball, (the name) is like the three-point arc, your shot arc, but we’re trying to tell a story now so this is a narrative arc,” said Chu. “That was the inspiration behind the name of the organization.”
ARC has come a long way since it was founded in 1995, the same year the Raptors started playing in Toronto. Back then, Chu and other leaders within the organization had to rent basketball courts at local high schools. Now they have their own athletic centre in Markham, Ont.
“We used to make that joke about, ‘oh, you know, one day, as opposed to renting schools, we’d love to have the keys to gym,’ because that’s the dream of every kid, to have the keys to gym so you could shoot around,” he said. “It’s just funny because, like, fast forward, 30 years later, through some of these initiatives, we were able to raise enough money to build our own mini-community centre with a basketball hoop and stuff, but so now we do have the keys to the gym which is pretty, pretty cool.
“The only downside is, I’m so old now that I can’t really play anymore, but the kids now have a place to run around, we have video games there, art, we teach coding, it’s gone far beyond just basketball.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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