Ontario expands watchdog’s powers
Ontario is looking to expand the powers of the ombudsman to provide oversight of municipalities, universities and school boards, Ombudsman Andre Marin said Thursday.
Those three sectors get over $30-billion a year in direct provincial funding with virtually no oversight on how they spend it, said Mr. Marin.
“[The proposed legislation is] going to allow Queen’s Park to follow the money,” he said. “The oversight of municipalities will include all the different boards within the cities, for example the police services board, so it’s going to be a huge leap in jurisdiction.”
Among the examples he cited were some that could have referred to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who has said he doesn’t think Toronto needs multiple accountability officers.
“Every time you look at the paper you see a series of issues at the local level: frauds, nepotism, conflict of interest, questionable expense claims, misbehaving mayors, some facing criminal charges, others facing criminal investigations,” Mr. Marin said in a teleconference call. “I think that it’s an area ripe for oversight.”
The increase in jurisdiction concerns some municipal authorities, including Fiona Crean, Toronto’s ombudsman. While she applauded the government for its accountability legislation, she also said she is “very concerned” about what it will mean for residents.
While more accountability is always a good thing, Ms. Crean worried the proposed setup could create confusion and duplication.
“De facto, what we have in Toronto now is two ombudsmen,” she said.
“It’s not about me, it’s about serving the public. I believe it is a very confusing scheme to have two ombudsman in one jurisdiction. Are we saying that the provincial ombudsman will look after the woman who had 17 sewer backups, or potholes?”
Councillor Paula Fletcher said Toronto doesn’t need any help from another layer of government, citing the potential for confusion and increased costs.
“We know some people don’t like our ombudsman. She went in there, she did a report that the mayor and his brother appeared to have interfered in the selection for agencies, boards and commissions. That was pretty brave to do that and I’m not sure we’d get that type of important attention if we didn’t have someone who was dedicated to the city,” she said. “We have a system already. Don’t fix what’s not broken.”
But Mr. Marin appeared to have little patience for such complaints, tweeting Thursday afternoon: “Some Toronto councillors sqwaking [sic] about OO oversight. Yes, you’ll be independently overseen and accountable.”
He said his office has had to turn away about 2,000 complaints a year because it had no jurisdiction over those areas, leaving people with virtually nowhere to turn.
The bill would also give Ontario’s children’s advocate new powers to deal with complaints about children’s aid societies.