Chapter 3

A Statistical Story

Complaints by category

Of the 349 complaints received in the past year, 293 led to an investigation and 222 were deemed admissible. This represents nearly 65% of the total number of complaints received during the period, while 56 complaints were determined to be inadmissible.

Inadmissible complaints (Table 3) are divided into five categories: provincial, federal, municipal, private sector, and trivial/frivolous/vexatious/in bad faith. Inadmissible complaints in the Provincial category include cases dealing with non-designated regions, organizations not subject to the FLSA but under the government’s control, or those affected by a government decision or restructuring of services. In fact, this category and the “Municipal” and “Private sector” categories together account for 85% of inadmissible complaints.

Inadmissible complaints are by no means devoid of interest. In many cases, the Commissioner’s Office forwards them to the organizations concerned with the aim of suggesting improvements that, though outside the framework of the Act, would better reflect the spirit of the law or promote excellence in service to the public.

With 46 complaints, the Commissioner’s Office also recorded an increase in the number of complaints in the “other types” ³⁸ category compared with 2011-2012. This category (Table 4) includes cases involving either independent bodies or entities created, mandated or funded by the government.

In 2012-2013, most of these complaints were about independent organizations such as the Law Society of Upper Canada, which regulates the legal and paralegal profession in Ontario. The cases are being investigated, but they will not be added to the statistics for government institutions.

There were 222 ministry-related complaints this fiscal year (Table 5). Because of the new approach adopted by the Commissioner’s Office, only the total number of admissible complaints will be recorded in the table of complaints for the institutions concerned. The aim is to report the situation as it was on March 31, 2013, in order to be as objective and transparent as possible with the institutions that were the subject of citizen complaints. In fact, between the time the writing is completed and the time the report is published, many of the complaints listed were resolved.

The team in the Commissioner’s Office works extremely hard to find permanent, pragmatic solutions to the problems raised. This work is carried out in cooperation with the stakeholders, always with a view to improving the quality and availability of French-language services. While some complaints lead to cases that can be resolved in a relatively short time, others have to do with systemic problems that require in-depth research and may therefore take longer. These efforts and results are not reflected in a table whose function is to report the situation at the end of the fiscal year.

* These complaints relate to agencies and institutions designated under the French Language Services Act.

** These complaints relate to entities that report directly to the Legislative Assembly.

*** These complaints are deemed admissible when they are brought against a municipality that has a by-law that guarantees the provision of French-language services.

The key ministries that serve the public directly — the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of Government Services and the Ministry of Finance — account for more than half of the complaints received in 2012-2013.

³⁸ Other types of complaints are difficult to categorize. They primarily concern the delivery of services where a member of the public has no other option because the agency has a monopoly on the service. These complaints are within the provincial government’s purview and relate to agencies created or mandated by various ministries to offer programs and services that, in cases of devolution, were previously delivered by the province.