Ontario Ombudsman releases report

(Update)

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin says the Liberal government has failed to live up to promises, and Ontarians have been left in danger as a result.

Andre Marin started off by saying most of the complaints his office received never made headlines, and a lot of them were complaints against institutions he has no purview over. One of his main contentions is that Ontario is far behind the rest of the country in Ombudsman oversight. He says this is particularly true in municipalities, universities school boards, hospitals and long term care homes as well as children’s aid societies and police. Marin says he turned away more than 25-hundred complaints to do with that sector.

One great concern he has is the unregulated industry of non-emergency ambulances. He says the government promised to start overseeing the businesses to protect hundreds of thousands of patients who used the services, but that hasn’t happened yet, and he says lives are at stake.

Marin also spoke briefly about the new investigation into unlicensed daycares in the province since a young child recently died in one such centre that had had some complaints against it already. He says he doesn’t understand why oversight falls to the Ministry of Education, shares the “horrification” of the ministers in charge and he will look at all policies and procedures in place or missing.

Lisa Hepfner has more.