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Tuesday, 29 December 2009 00:00 |
Ontario school boards should be open & transparent. Calling for Queen's Park to allow province's Ombudsman to respond to public complaints.
Definition of an Ombudsman:
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing the broad scope of constituent interests.
Dear residents,
The TDSB is considering hiring an Ombudsman who would report directly to the TDSB Director. In other words, s/he would report to the very institution that a complaint is made about and which pays their salary and budget. I submit this is being proposed with the best of intentions but is the wrong way to go about it.
Please ask the TDSB to adopt the resolution I offered last year to ask the Province to allow school boards, along with other MUSH sector institutions, to be be under the purview of the provincial Ombudsman, Andre Marin.
Ombudsman Act Reform motion-Trustee Josh Matlow
Friday, 05 December 2008
FYI- If the government accepts our request, the manner in which the TDSB (and other school boards and municipalities) chooses to conduct debates of public import in private session, how it is managing its safe schools and equity departments, spending money while in deficit, Human rights complaints, etc. will at long last be open for public scrutiny through the office of the Ombudsman.
Whereas, The Ombudsman of Ontario is an Officer of the Provincial Legislature who is independent of government and political parties and who’s job it is to ensure government accountability through effective oversight of the administration of government services; and
Whereas, The Ombudsman's authority, as established by the Ombudsman Act to oversee the delivery of public services, has not been modernized in over 30 years; and
Whereas, five Canadian provinces and territories already allow the Ombudsman of their respective jurisdictions to investigate school boards; and
Whereas, the Toronto District School Board is granted a budget of $2.3 billion by the provincial government for public education services; and
Whereas, the Ombudsman can investigate complaints about and conduct systemic investigations into services provided by the government of Ontario and its organizations but currently not the “MUSH” (Municipalities, Universities, School boards and Hospitals) sector: and
Whereas, allowing the Ombudsman to investigate school boards, along with other members of the “MUSH” sector, will contribute to holding these public institutions accountable to parents, students and all residents who may have a legitimate complaint about their school board, municipality or another public body that is funded by tax dollars collected by the provincial government;
Therefore, Be it resolved that the Toronto District School Board formally requests that the provincial government amend the Ontario Ombudsman Act to allow the Ombudsman’s authority to extend to municipalities and school boards, universities, hospitals, long-term care facilities, police, and children’s aid societies to support transparency and accountability for the public purse and to protect the rights of Ontarians.
Josh Matlow
Trustee For St. Paul’s
Toronto District School Board
www.joshmatlow.ca
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