An Ombudsman is an independent and impartial officer of City Council of Toronto, who investigates, as a place of last resort, complaints about administrative unfairness.
The word ombudsman means representative in Swedish. The modern concept was started in Sweden in 1809 to create a balance between the powers of government and its citizenry.
find out more about the history here
The Ombudsman’s job is to investigate complaints about the City of Toronto’s public services. The authority comes from the City of Toronto Act, Chapter Three.
The by-law sets out the areas the Ombudsman can investigate. It includes city divisions, agencies, boards and commissions.
There are some exceptions – notably, the Police Services Board and the Boards of Public Health and Toronto Public Library.
No. The most important thing to know is that the Ombudsman investigates complaints where individuals have already tried to resolve the problem with the division or ABC involved.
We are an office of “last resort.”
It means that if you have a complaint you have to take it to the area that provided the service and give them a chance to sort it out first. If the complaint still isn’t resolved after that, then you can call us and ask us to investigate.
The key goal is to help improve the services delivered to anyone by the City. Because the office is independent and impartial you can make a complaint about services, and we can investigate it thoroughly and make recommendations to resolve issues and improve service.
We deal with public complaints about city services and administration if and when the issues have not been resolved to your satisfaction at the departmental level.
Where the public has a concern about how a councillor has conducted him or herself we refer those calls to the Integrity Commissioner.
The first step is to contact us. We will be able to determine the nature of your complaint, if we can handle it, and – if so – what the best way to handle it is.
It depends. Some issues can be resolved quickly without paperwork. However, for complicated, formal investigations a written complaint, together with documentation will be necessary. Read more
