How to Make a Complaint

To make a complaint to the Ombudsman, you must complete a Complaint Form.

When a complaint comes to us, it follows a process that includes determination of jurisdiction, preliminary inquiries and research, analysis, possible investigation and resolution. Here is a brief description of how our process works.

Step 1 – Is this the type of complaint we can take?

We will listen to your complaint and ask questions to determine if our office is the best place to deal with it. The Ombudsman Act sets out the types of complaints that we can take. If the Act does not apply to your complaint, we will talk to you about other options.

Step 2 – Is the complaint ready for us?

We will ask what steps you have already taken to resolve your complaint. We will want to know things such as:

• Did you ask the government office to give you reasons for the decision?
• Was there an appeal process? If so, did you try it?
• Did you attempt to resolve your matter with the management of the department?

If you have not tried some of these options, we’ll ask you to do so, before we take your complaint. The Office of the Ombudsman is a place of last resort. You must first try any internal government processes that are available to resolve your matter, before coming to us.

Step 3 – What information do you have?

We will ask you for all the details about what happened. We may ask you to write down your story and give us copies of any documents you have about your complaint.

Step 4 – How do we deal with the complaint impartially?

We will look at your information and will also ask the government for information so that we can determine how best to deal with your complaint. We will try to resolve your complaint informally.

Step 5 – If your complaint is not resolved, what’s next?

If your complaint can’t be resolved informally, we may investigate. Sometimes things can be resolved through discussion with the department during the investigation process. After investigation, if your complaint is substantiated, the Ombudsman:

• may meet with the department/agency to try to resolve the complaint in a fair and reasonable way
• may make recommendations to the department/agency to improve administration
• will provide results of the investigation to the complainant
• may make a report to Cabinet and the Legislature if recommendations are not carried out.

You can return your completed complaint form in the following ways:

Electronically: Submit securely via the Secure File Link sent to you when requesting this form. If you did not receive a link or downloaded this form directly from our website, please contact our office via phone or email. Please do not submit your complaint form by regular email as it is not a secure form of communication.

Paper Copy: Please print and sign the completed form and mail it to us or drop it off to our office during office hours.  You will find our address on our Contact Us page.