Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the seconder of the motion for allowing this motion to come forward. As mentioned in the motion, there are only three jurisdictions in Canada that do not currently have an ombudsman office and we are one of them. There are innumerable situations where NWT residents could use an ombudsman to assist in solving a dispute or a disagreement. I’m going to mention a number. They include but are definitely not limited to:
•
rental officer decisions that either the tenant or
the landlord disagrees with;
•
landlord/tenant issues that are outside the
jurisdiction of the rental officer;
•
decisions by housing authorities that the client
may disagree with;
•
income support issues – a family may lose their
home due to income support not issuing cheques in a timely manner;
•
investigations and decisions by a self-regulating
body that the professional person feels was incorrectly handled or resulted in an unjust decision;
•
health and social service issues;
•
administrative decisions by officials in hospitals
and other medical facilities;
•
issues with how health care is delivered to
individuals; and
•
decisions made by the Workers’ Safety and
Compensation Commission.
Government staff generally do a wonderful job for our residents but there are times when a resident – rightly or wrongly – feels that they have been treated unjustly or without fairness. In most cases they have no option for appeal. Some organizations do have a complaints process. We do have some appeals within our own government organization. If you lose on that front, there is absolutely no other option to appeal except to go to court. I’ve talked about that before. Court is not a viable option for many people. An ombudsman office provides an impartial third party, someone who can evaluate the disagreement or the presumed improper treatment, someone who is an alternative to going to court. Goodness knows, our courts are busy enough. This would help to alleviate some of the congestion that we currently have in our court system.
We probably, as Members, all know at least one, I’m sure many people, many residents who are intimidated by the court system and by the court process, and they may have the courage of their convictions, they may firmly believe that they have been unfairly treated, but they will not even contemplate taking their case to court. This motion asks for legislation to establish an ombudsman office with the powers necessary for an ombudsman to do the proper job. In order for that to happen, the office needs to be at arm’s length, independent from government, similar to our other statutory officers offices.
As well as acting as an arbitrator, an ombudsman can act as an evaluator of the government and its boards and agencies. Members have often said that as a government we don’t do enough evaluation, and I totally agree with that. Looking inwards for ways to improve our services, we don’t do enough of that either. The office of an ombudsman can be tasked with that, can make recommendations for improvement to government processes and to the programs and services that we provide for our residents.
In previous discussions, the government of the day has said that residents have ways available to them to appeal a government action or a decision. That’s true. They can talk to department staff. There are appeal boards, in some cases, as I’ve mentioned, and people can talk to their MLA for help. But none of these possibilities provides an impartial forum. Even as Members we’re not impartial. We are also very political. When all options are exhausted and the individual has reached the end of their rope, they have nowhere to turn and they do not see where they can go, they still feel wronged, the only action left to them is to go to court. It’s expensive and it’s an intimidating solution for most of us. NWT
residents fighting a government or a board decision need an alternative to the Supreme Court, and an ombudsman office will give them that.
We’ve been talking about the need for an ombudsman office for years now. There are references to it in Hansard from 1992.There was a proposal for an office as far back as 1993, and a report tabled in this House made recommendations to establish an ombudsman office. But we have had, unfortunately, no concrete action to establish an office to date. The office is needed. The need is evident. Our territory has grown and we have grown up. Part of being grown up and being a grown up is recognizing the need to help our friends and neighbours. Thank you.