June 10, 2004 - 4 — Le Protecteur du citoyen

34th Annual Report of the Protecteur du citoyen (2003-2004)

During the 2003-2004 fiscal year, there was 7% less requests than the previous year, dropping from 21,763 to 20,158. However, 53% of these requests fell within the Protecteur du citoyen’s jurisdiction, compared to 48% in 2002-2003. Interventions which were completed after full investigations were conducted increased from 5,316 in 2002-2003 to 6,112 in 2003-2004. Complaints were substantiated in 1,745 of those cases, which means that 28.6% of citizens who lodged complaints against governmental services were justified in doing so.

In the case of requests which did not demand an inquiry, the Protecteur du citoyen informed citizens about their rights and redress possible recover. In the case of 3,458 of these requests, the Protecteur du citoyen gave pertinent information or had to refuse to intervene or interrupt a case under review based on grounds relevant to its governing law or at the citizen’s request. The Protecteur du citoyen also referred 1,293 citizens to the appropriate departments within the Ministères and government agencies or to their respective complaints handling offices. Finally, it had to refuse slightly more than 9,500 requests, which did not fall under its jurisdiction and most often were private matters.

The Protecteur du citoyen exercises its jurisdiction over more than 80 Quebec government departments and agencies. This year, the Protecteur du citoyen processed requests which targeted 62 of these government departments and agencies. Naturally, government departments and agencies that interact directly with the public were more prominently mentioned. Six government departments and agencies alone represented nearly 80% of the requests processed: the ministère de la Sécurité publique (3,258 requests), the ministère de l’Emploi, de la Solidarité sociale et de la Famille (1,762), the ministère du Revenu du Québec (1,161), the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (1,013), the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (923) and the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (464).

Among the government departments and agencies which were the object of at least 20 requests from citizens and in which the Protecteur du citoyen intervened, 8 displayed a rate of substantiated complaints that exceeded 30%. These were:

Departments and Agencies	Number of substantiated complaints	Rate of substantiated complaints
Ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l'Immigration	39	57 %
Commission administrative des régimes de retraite et d'assurances	20	48 %
Régie du logement	41	47 %
Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec	164	44 %
Ministère de l'Environement	11	42 %
Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec	239	35 %
Ministère de la Sécurité publique	624	33 %
Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail	119	30 %

Ninety-one percent (91%) of recommendations issued by the Protecteur du citoyen to government departments and agencies following citizens' complaints were followed.

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