November 7, 2002 - 4 — Le Protecteur du citoyen

32nd Québec Ombudsman Annual Report (2001-2002)

"Above and Beyond the Law"

The Québec Ombudsman – Facts and Figures

In 2001-2002, the office of the Québec Ombudsman saw a slight increase in the number of requests it handled. Complaints went from 24,475 to 25,249. Of this number, close to 6,000 were investigated and 1,778 cases were found to be substantiated. This means that 29.7% of citizens who lodged a complaint against governmental services had good reason to do so.
The Québec Ombudsman responded to 4,022 requests for information from government departments and agencies, both within and outside our jurisdiction. We had to refuse 12,331 requests, mainly because the agencies targeted did not fall under our jurisdiction. We also referred 1,618 citizens to the appropriate service departments within the government departments (or ministries) and agencies, or to their respective complaints handling offices.
The Ombudsman holds the right of review over more than one hundred Quebec government departments and agencies. This year, requests received by the Ombudsman targeted 61 of these. Naturally, the ministries and agencies that work directly with the public were more prevalent. Six ministries and agencies alone represented nearly 80% of the requests processed. These included the Ministère de la Sécurité publique (4,147), the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (2,060), the Ministère du Revenu (1,420), the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (899), the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (832) and the Ministère de l'Éducation (432).
Among the government departments and agencies targeted by at least 50 citizens' requests and in which the Ombudsman intervened, 7 displayed a rate of substantiated complaints that exceeded 30%. These were:

Departments and Agencies	Number of substantiated complaints	Rate of substantiated complaints
Ministère de l'Industrie et du Commerce	64 sur 91	70 %
Ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l'Immigration	74 sur 112	66 %
Ministère de la Sécurité publique	717 sur 1976	36 %
Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail	98 sur 290	34 %
Ministère du Revenu	275 sur 821	34 %
Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec	176 sur 519	34 %
Public Curator	52 sur 161	32 %

Ninety-seven percent (97%) of recommendations addressed by the Québec Ombudsman to government departments and agencies following citizens' complaints were followed.
The Québec Ombudsman is pleased to note that we managed once again this year to maintain our response times for complaints. Thus, 97% of requests for information were handled on the same day that they were received, while 77% of investigations were closed within less than one month.
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