Delays in Processing Complaints to the Commissioner’s Office

Yesterday evening I was in Rockland to attend the celebrations for the 15th anniversary of Retraite en action. I’d like to thank the organizers once again for inviting me. I really enjoyed my conversations with all those young (at heart) retirees, even though my return flight was cancelled, thanks to Sandy (I rented a car and drove back in the wee hours of the morning!).

At the event I met a complainant who said he was frustrated because he hadn’t heard anything about his complaint, except for an acknowledgement, in almost a year. Yet it was a relatively simple case, he said. In fact, I remembered the complaint, because I keep up to date on every one of them. The complainant told me it wasn’t worth the trouble for a citizen to complain to the Office of the French Language Services Commissioner.

While I understand the complainant’s position perfectly, I was sorry to hear that sort of comment and especially his doubts about the value of his complaint and, ultimately, the work of the Commissioner’s Office. I was sorry because, I can assure you, the FLSC team works harder than I’ve ever seen a government office work. But with just six people on the team, including me, and only two investigators, one of whom is also the office manager, it’s a Herculean task. And our very modest budget, always in danger of being chopped, doesn’t make things any easier.

We receive more than one complaint a day. Every day. That’s a lot when you look at our resources, but it’s not very many when you think of all the Franco-Ontarians out there and the number of dealings they have with the provincial government on a daily basis. In fact, despite our heavy workload, we’d like to receive more complaints, because that’s our bread and butter! We regard every complaint as direct quality control feedback on the government’s services.

It may take us some time to get back to you, I agree, but you’re clearly making a difference. There is absolutely no doubt that together we have made substantial progress in recent years in the delivery of French-language services. And it’s thanks to you, the complainants!

Please be patient and, most importantly, please keep telling us about failures to provide high-quality service in French. That’s the only way we can move forward. Slowly, perhaps, but surely. If we don’t hear about problems, we can’t do anything about them.