Executive Council of Ontario

The Executive Council of Ontario (French: Conseil des ministres de l'Ontario), often informally referred to as the Cabinet of Ontario (French: Cabinet de l'Ontario), is the cabinet and the executive committee of the provincial government of the Canadian province of Ontario. It comprises ministers of the Crown in right of Ontario, who are selected by the premier of Ontario (the first minister) and formally appointed by the lieutenant governor. The activities of the Government of Ontario are directed by the Executive Council.

The council serves a similar function as the Privy Council for Canada. The "Crown in right of Ontario" is the legal entity that owns government property, employs public servants, and acts in legal proceedings like criminal prosecutions. Accordingly, the cabinet exercises executive and sovereign powers within Ontario's jurisdiction in the name of the monarch "in right of Ontario". Similar to decisions of the federal cabinet, executive decisions by the Ontario cabinet are known as Order-in-Council, formally issued by in the name of the lieutenant governor, the monarch's representative in the province, on the advice of the ministers. Though the lieutenant governor does not attend cabinet meetings, cabinet directives are said to be ordered by the Lieutenant Governor-in-Council.

The cabinet generally consists of current members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, with the following exceptions:

Ministers may use the honorific prefix "The Honourable", and starting in June 2025, the post-nominal “E.C.O.”

Unlike federal ministers who are appointed privy councillor for life (strictly speaking, for the lifetime of the appointing monarch, but in practice upon the monarch's demise are all reappointed by the successor monarch), provincial ministers are only members of the Executive Council while in office.

Prior to 2025, former ministers and premiers were not entitled to the honorific prefix "the Honourable" unless they are otherwise entitled for reasons including:

As part of the omnibus bill for implementation of the 2025 budget, the Ford government formally institute the post-nominal “E.C.O.” and designated all living former members who have not been convicted of an indictable or hybrid criminal offense as "Honorary Members" of the Executive Council. The designation grants former ministers the right of continued use of the honorific prefix and the post-nominals for life without the rights, obligations or privileges of a current minister. Ontario is the fourth Canadian province to adopt this practice, following the examples by conservative governments in the provinces of Nova Scotia (as of 2007), Saskatchewan (2019), and Alberta (2022).

Doug Ford and his Cabinet were sworn in by Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell on June 29, 2018, following the 2018 general election. Ford conducted six major cabinet shuffles (with substantial numbers of ministers changing roles) since 2018 and 7 minor adjustments (triggered by resignations and impacted small numbers of ministers). The cabinet has numbered at 37 members since August 2024, the largest ever cabinet in Ontario history. It currently consists of the following ministers.