Langley residents will have to travel to Surrey, New Westminster, Delta, White Rock or Tsawwassen if they want to complain to the provincial ombudsperson.
The B.C. Ombudsperson fields public complaints about any provincial department or agency.
“The Office of the Ombudsperson serves all of British Columbia,” said Ombudsperson Jay Chalke. “Our mobile complaint clinic is a great option for anyone in the Lower Mainland who has not been successful resolving their concerns about a provincial public authority on their own. We can review your situation during the mobile complaint clinic. That initial review can lead to an investigation by our office.”
The complaint clinics are Surrey Central SkyTrain station on Feb. 2 and New Westminster SkyTrainstation on Feb. 4. Three South of the Fraser clinics are North Delta on Feb. 1, White Rock on Feb. 3 and Tsawwassen on Feb. 5.
Call the Office of the Ombudsperson toll-free at 1-800-567-3247 for more information and to reserve a time.
If people can’t travel to the clinics, there are other options.
“We do one or two tours each year and spread them out across the province, so it might be a couple years until we get back to the Lower Mainland,” said media spokesperson Brad Densmore. “For the current set of clinics, we will of course accept complaints about any provincial public authority in our jurisdiction – and people are always free to make a complaint by phone, mail or with our online complaint form.”
The Ombudsperson is independent of government and has jurisdiction over all provincial ministries and boards, Crown corporations, colleges and universities, schools and school boards, health authorities, local governments and self-governing professions.
“We receive around 7,500 inquiries and complaints annually,” Chalke said. “People can reach us in person, by phone, mail, fax, or web form.
Learn more at www.bcombudsperson.ca.
“Your complaint can help others. We have seen many times that just one voice can lead to systemic improvements that assist many.”
Since 1979, the Office of the Ombudsperson has had a statutory mandate from the provincial legislature to uphold fair and reasonable conduct by provincial public authorities. In addition to investigating individual complaints, the Ombudsperson also publishes systemic investigations and recommendations for changes that address administrative unfairness and improve public administration in B.C.
