N.W.T. ombud's office releases first annual report

The new office of the ombud in the Northwest Territories received 53 inquiries in its first year of operation, 48 of which were potential complaints.

The office, an independent body of the legislative assembly that looks at the fairness of territorial government administration and services, began accepting complaints on Nov. 18, 2019. It tabled its first annual report, Speaking Up for Fairness, which covers the period from its establishment to March 31, last week in the legislature.

Of the 48 potential complaints, 11 went to the complaint stage, according to the report. The rest were either resolved, referred back to the government authority or were outside the ombud's jurisdiction. By the end of March, only two complaints were still active.

Colette Langlois, the ombud, said there isn't one typical type of complaint.

"They can go from the fairly straightforward to the fairly complex," she said in an interview with CBC's The Trailbreaker.

Langlois said the majority of the inquiries came from either the South Slave region or from correction centres.

She said because the office is located in Hay River, it's not surprising that in the first year of operations, a high proportion of inquiries, 42 per cent, came from that region.

She also said a large proportion of the inquiries and complaints, 28 per cent, came from correction centres.

"That's not unusual just because inmates, their day-to-day lives are dictated by administrative decisions," she said. "It doesn't necessarily mean [correction centres are] doing a bad job.

"Every complaint is an invitation to open up a window and see what's going on. Sometimes there's nothing going on and sometimes there's a mess that needs to be tidied up."

Good working relationship

Langlois said that for the most part, the government departments and agencies her office has dealt with have wanted to work with her.

"Having a third-party outside perspective can sometimes help them to identify problems that are harder to notice for people working in the program day in and day out," she said.

The fact that her office has made non-binding rather than formal recommendations on complaints so far have made it easier to have more open conversations with government departments and agencies to find solutions, she said.

"I think there are a lot of advantages working that way and it can be really effective," Langlois said.

The report also lists 14 recommendations to amend the Ombud's Act to ensure the office has the power to fulfil its mandate, including the authority to investigate matters before January 1, 2016.

The report also stated the office spent more than $630,000 in its first fiscal year, with a little more than half of the total going toward salaries and benefits.