Ombudsman Mary McFadyen. Photo courtesy Saskatchewan Ombudsman’s website.
Anyone who’s ever been frustrated with their mayor or town councillors has a new avenue to look to for help.
The Ombudsman is a legislatively-appointed, independent officer who has investigated Saskatchewan complaints against governing bodies since 1972. In a normal year, Ombudsman Saskatchewan’s office receives a public complaint for one in every 10 Saskatchewan municipalities.
Some of the things they’d be asked to look into include tax assessments, or mistakes in utility bills, said Ombudsman Mary McFadyen.
“Lots of people will phone our office because they have a complaint and they don’t really know how to have it dealt with,” she explained.
But up until late last month, when it comes to municipalities, they couldn’t do anything about those worries.
New legislation, under The Municipal Conflict of Interest Amendment Act, 2015, expands the ombudsman’s jurisdiction beyond the provincial scope, extending them to the 782 municipalities in Saskatchewan.
“So now we have the jurisdiction to receive complaints from the public who feel that they’ve been treated unfairly by the administrative actions of those levels of government as well,” McFadyen said.
These rule changes come after a Regina-area reeve in the RM of Sherwood was found guilty of violating the public trust. He’d been poised to make big money off an RM development deal due to in-camera meetings
Behind-the-door deals will now be a thing of the past, said Al Loke, the CEO of New North, which is the advocate group for northern Saskatchewan’s municipalities.
New North is welcoming the changes.
“It’s made a much clearer line of accountability to mayor and councillors in the communities,” said Loke.
“Some of those decisions that they make are for the benefits of the community, but other times they make decisions for their own benefit and this is where the code of ethics and the conflict of interest comes in.”
He said while people often ask questions at New North’s office, before there wasn’t much else they could do. Now “they can launch a complaint to make sure that everybody’s on the same playing ground and everything’s fair and people aren’t being taken advantage of or being dictated to or being bullied. This is all speculative but that’s what it’s trying to prevent,” Loke said.
However, he can’t predict if northern residents will take advantage of this.
“It’s not an easy process to complain but it’s put the issue in front that they now have an avenue to look at addressing some of the concerns may feel that are not appropriate or fair,” he said.
McFadyen says even though her office is used to guiding people through complaints, there’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to northern communities because some fall under different legislation.
“There’s lots of northern incorporated towns and village like La Ronge is an incorporated town and then there’s lots of northern settlements like Missinippi and Stanley Mission and they fall under the northern Saskatchewan administration district and that is considered a municipal entity so we have jurisdiction,” she said.
“It’s very complicated but we’ve hit the ground running.”
In coming months, they expect to see municipalities creating and following guidelines with new code of ethics legislation.
For now, Loke says New North’s job is to make sure municipalities are aware of the changes.
Last year’s big investigation for Saskatchewan Ombudsman centred on senior’s care, with a particular focus on Santa Maria Special Care home in Regina.
For more information on how to launch a complaint, you can visit Saskatchewan Ombudsman’s website here.