Federal budget looks to restore auditor general’s access to privileged information

OTTAWA — The federal government is looking to restore the auditor general’s access to privileged information.

In Thursday’s federal budget, a line item in a list of proposed legislative changes indicated Ottawa plans to update the Auditor General Act “to clarify and modernize” the auditor general’s access to information.

Government officials providing background briefings on the budget were unable to state exactly what Ottawa is trying to achieve with the proposal, but said it came from a request from the auditor general’s office.

In a statement sent to The Canadian Press on Friday, a spokesperson for the Office of the Auditor General declined to elaborate, citing the “budget blackout period” when federal departments and agencies are expected to forward questions about the budget to the Department of Finance.

The office of Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne confirmed the changes are meant to restore the auditor general’s access to privileged documents, among other changes.

“The auditor general has communicated a growing problem with access to information needed to perform audits. These challenges have become more pronounced since a 2023 Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that organizations are not required to disclose privileged information to the Ontario Auditor General because existing legislation does not explicitly require it,” a spokesperson for Champagne’s office said.

The office said the changes will also address the protection and handling of information provided during audits, and introduce amendments to allow the auditor general to appoint an external auditor.

“By expressly addressing privilege, the amendments would reduce legal uncertainty and promote more consistent practices across audited organizations,” said the statement.

The 2023 Ontario court case comes from an unsuccessful attempt by Ontario’s auditor general to access privileged records from Laurentian University.

The provincial auditor general was performing a “value-for-money” audit after the university — which had received provincial grants — entered creditor protection when it was unable to meet payroll obligations in 2021.

The auditor general of Ontario requested some privileged documents from the university for the audit, but Laurentian denied it access. The university argued the auditor general didn’t have the authority to demand the documents.

The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a Superior Court ruling that said the provincial act didn’t explicitly state the auditor general had the right to access privileged records.

“The application judge held that while privilege can be abrogated by statute, the language of any statutory provision must be explicit and demonstrate a clear and unambiguous intent to do so,” the Court of Appeal wrote in its 2023 decision.

“As such, the question was whether … the Act demonstrated a clear, explicit, and unambiguous intention to abrogate solicitor-client, litigation, and settlement privilege. The application judge ultimately concluded that it did not.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 6, 2026.

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press