Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Past experience suggests that the development of a legislation this size and complexity of an Ombudsman Act would require four more years in the drafting of the initial legislative proposal through to the passage of a bill. The full cost of the bill’s development is difficult to estimate but the ongoing costs of operating an ombudsman office have been estimated to be in excess of $500,000 annually. An ombudsman office will not by itself replace or eliminate any of the many dozens of statutory appeal processes or officers already established in legislation and programs. An ombudsman's primary role is not to hear initial subject-specific complaints from the public. Rather, the ombudsman is an overseer of administrative fairness who considers the impartial and objective nature in which duly filed appeals were heard and decided. Given the breadth of our current statutory appeals processes and the costs associated with an ombudsman office, the government does not see the establishment of the empowering legislation as a priority.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.