June 14, 2006 - 2 — Le Protecteur du citoyen

36th Annual Report of the Protecteur du citoyen (2005-2006)

Highlights

Québec City, June 14, 2006 – The Protecteur du citoyen was successful on over 80% of the substantiated complaints¹ it received in 2005–2006, obtaining redress for citizens from the Québec government departments and agencies concerned. In all, 1,679 complaints proved to be substantiated.

The Protecteur du citoyen handled 18,283 requests. In 5,831cases, there was cause to investigate or intervene with the department or agency concerned, which represents a slight increase over last year. Corrective action was obtained in 1,387 cases, a similar proportion to recent years.

In cases where there was no cause to intervene, the Protecteur du citoyen informed citizens about their rights and available recourse. In some cases, it provided information, in others it refused to intervene because it did not have the legal right to, and in others citizens withdrew their complaints. This category totaled 3,562 complaints in all. In 1,147 further instances, the Protecteur du citoyen asked complainants to first take their case directly to the authorities concerned. A further 7,743 inquiries were deemed to be outside the Protecteur du citoyen’s jurisdiction (complaint about a municipality or a federal government body, for instance). This represented a drop of 739 requests compared to 2004–2005.

Highest rates of substantiated complaint

The Registrar of Civil Status, which now falls under the responsibility of the ministère de la Justice, had the highest rate of substantiated complaints among all 60 government departments and agencies. The ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport stood at 44.6%, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec at 36.4%, the ministère de la Sécurité publique (and specifically Correctional Services) at 33.4%, and the Régie du logement next at 28.6%.

Evolution of substantiated complaints over a five-year period

Departments and agencies	% 2001-2002	% 2002-2003	% 2003-2004	% 2004-2005	% 2005-2006
The Registrar of Civil Status* ( Ministère de la Justice)	80	59	43	34	75
Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport	20	25,8	16,8	34,9	44,6
Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec	34	34,9	34,7	30,4	36,4
Ministère de la Sécurité publique	36	31,4	32,6	35,5	33,4
Régie du logement	11	25,7	46,6	29	28,6
Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail	34	31,8	30	28,2	25,6

* Since February 2005, the Registrar of Civil Status has fallen under the responsibility of the ministère de la Justice. Before it was part of the ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l’Immigration.

Main departments and agencies complained about in 2005-2006

Once again this year, the Protecteur du citoyen was primarily called on to intervene with departments and agencies that deliver direct services to the public: the ministère de la Sécurité publique (3,104 complaints), the ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (1,495), the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (1,080), Revenu Québec (1,012), and the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (998).

The mission of the Protecteur du citoyen is to prevent or correct errors or unfair treatment that individuals or groups may suffer at the hands of a Québec government department or agency. Since April 1, 2006, it has also been responsible for processing last-resort complaints from the public with regard to the health and social services network.

Note

Since April 1, 2006, the Protecteur du citoyen has been able to break complaints down by subject matter, i.e., why citizens have complained about a particular department or agency. A single case may therefore count for more than one complaint. [back to text]

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Source : Le Protecteur du citoyen

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