Sask. ombudsman handled more concerns about municipalities last year than 2019

The Ombudsman of Saskatchewan saw an increase in complaints about municipalities in 2020, with several Saskatchewan residents expressing concerns about how their municipalities charged them unreasonable fees for copies of documents. The ombudsman’s office handled 459 complaints about cities, towns, villages, resort villages, rural municipalities, northern municipalities and other types of municipalities last year, compared to 403 complaints in 2019 and 452 concerns in 2018.

Of the complaints received last year, 20 were related to the pandemic. The most common complaint was from people having trouble acquiring public documents or participating in public meetings while their local council and administration were transitioning online. “Through our work this past year, we have helped and encouraged municipalities to carry out their duties fairly, for example, to develop fair processes for dealing with people who behave unreasonably with municipal staff and officials, and to charge reasonable fees for copies of municipal documents,” Ombudsman Mary McFadyen wrote in her 2020 annual report.

McFadyen’s office continued to reach out to municipalities to help them understand the ombudsman’s role and how to deal fairly with complaints about council members’ conduct, her report said. For example, changes to The Cities Act and The Municipalities Act last July now allow councils to declare a member’s seat vacant if it determines the member failed to properly deal with a conflict of interest. “It is therefore very important, when making this determination, that councils use a process that is procedurally fair to both the person complaining and the council member complained about,” she added. Besides municipalities, the Ombudsman of Saskatchewan also investigates complaints about provincial government ministries, Crown corporations, most provincial and provincially-funded agencies, boards and commissions, and publicly funded health entities.

The ombudsman’s office received a total of 3,415 complaints last year, with 2,492 concerns — including 322 issues from the southeast region — about organizations that the office could investigate and 477 related to the pandemic, said the report. There were 619 complaints last year about the Ministry of Corrections and Policing compared to 579 the year before; 554 complaints about the Ministry of Social Services in 2020 compared to 884 the year before; 65 concerns about the Ministry of Health last year compared to 21 the year before; and 274 complaints about Crown corporations compared to 426 concerns in 2019.

Complaints about the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) rose to 156 in 2020 from 141 the year before, the report said. About one-third of the concerns were related to COVID-19 and spanned various topics from delayed procedures to long-term care.

The ombudsman’s office received 51 complaints about long-term care homes last year, including concerns about buildings that the SHA operated and concerns about non-profit and for-profit operators. “Several of these (concerns) were from people who were unable to see their family members in care due to visitation restrictions,” McFadyen wrote. “Some contacted us because they felt their family member’s care home was not taking enough restrictions, while others felt the precautions being taken were too strict.” The Ombudsman of Saskatchewan also reviewed the pandemic outbreak at Extendicare Parkside in Regina, not only the actions of the business but also the oversight and support that the SHA and Ministry of Health provided.

For more information about the Ombudsman of Saskatchewan and to read about case examples, visit ombudsman.sk.ca.