Accountability finally coming to Ontario’s cities: ombudsman

Posted on July 10, 2014 in Governance Delivery System

TheStar.com – Opinion/Commentary – Ontario Ombudsman André Marin on the new Accountability Act and the long-overdue changes it introduces to the province’s oversight of municipalities.
Jul 10 2014.   By: André Marin

A bit of history was made this week as the Ontario government inched toward greater accountability in the broader public sector.

For some municipalities, however, according to the Star’s Richard Brennan, it was the start of a “political maelstrom” that is punishment “for Toronto’s sins.”

I prefer to think of it, as one of my clever Twitter followers put it, as “Bill 8-ed good news.”

Bill 8 is the new Accountability Act (full name: Public Sector and MPP Accountability and Transparency Act 2014). Once passed, it will, among other things, finally allow Ontarians to complain to their ombudsman about municipal governments, universities and school boards — in addition to the hundreds of provincial government organizations we already oversee.

Ontario comes to this accountability party decades behind the other provinces. All have long given their ombudsmen jurisdiction in the MUSH sector (municipalities, universities, school boards, hospitals and long-term care, child protection and police). Ontario is the only province whose ombudsman has no jurisdiction over hospitals, long-term care or children’s aid societies.

Bill 8 doesn’t change that — instead, it will create a “patient ombudsman,” which my office will oversee, and give the existing child advocate investigative powers. But it does open the M, U and S of MUSH to my oversight — which is wonderful news for the thousands of Ontarians who complain to us about those areas every year (10,387 since 2005).

Municipalities have always accounted for the lion’s share of MUSH complaints to our office. Even the first Ombudsman, Arthur Maloney, said in 1977 that he was receiving 300 to 400 municipal complaints per year. Last year, we received 1,595.

Believe me, they are not all about what Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson referred to in the Star as “Toronto’s bad behaviour.”
Municipal government in Ontario is crying out for oversight. Yes, there are elections every four years, but what happens in between? We see news stories daily across the province about “bad behaviour” in the bureaucracy and among politicians. Who holds them to account?

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario lobby group sees Bill 8 as provincial heavy-handedness. Yet the province gave municipalities the power to create their own accountability officers in 2008. How is that working out? Two words — epic fail.

There are 444 municipalities in Ontario. Only one has an ombudsman: Toronto, which was forced to do so by law — and her fate has been subject to whims of council. Some 7 per cent have integrity commissioners. The few auditors-general were threatened and shut down after issuing critical reports — now there are only two outside Toronto. Far from embracing accountability officers, the evidence since 2008 is that municipalities have run from them.
Compare that to the provincial level where seven watchdogs — ombudsman, auditor general, information and privacy commissioner, integrity commissioner, French language services commissioner, environmental commissioner and the provincial advocate for children and youth — keep an eye on the government’s every move and every dollar spent.

But no independent oversight for the $3.5 billion in provincial funding that goes to municipalities every year, not to mention all the revenue they raise on their own? It is high time this imbalance was righted.

Several mayors, including Mike Bradley of Sarnia and Bob Bratina of Hamilton, have welcomed the prospect of our oversight. They get that we can help their citizens with broad systemic problems, unsnarl red tape, flag issues before they fester, recommend solutions — exactly what we have done for hundreds of provincial organizations since 1975.

Concerns from critics like AMO that our work amounts to “double oversight” are, frankly, a smokescreen.

Our office’s track record speaks for itself — tens of thousands of complaints resolved quickly every year, fixing problems big and small. The raison d’être of an ombudsman is to cut through unnecessary processes and make government more efficient. Five other provinces have had their ombudsman doing this work for years — Ontario will be in good company.

In 2011, reporting on his conflict-of-interest inquiry involving Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, former justice Douglas Cunningham said all Ontario municipalities needed a better “ethical infrastructure.” He said: “It is fundamental that members of the public do not have to depend only on the personal ethical standards of elected officials.”

Bill 8 is a step toward building that infrastructure, and I look forward to working with municipalities on it. I invite them to learn more about our office by reading our reports — or contacting me. I promise I won’t bite.

André Marin is the Ombudsman of Ontario. @Ont_Ombudsman

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/07/10/accountability_finally_coming_to_ontarios_cities_ombudsman.html >

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