Office of the Ombudsperson - Victoria, British Columbia

Erica K.

I really shouldn’t have to get to the point where I need to file a complaint with the Ombudsperson. The BC government should be resolving these issues internally. I’ve never encountered this kind of dysfunction in other provinces. This isn’t a Canada-wide issue — it’s specific to BC.

I went ahead and submitted a complaint, and the response I received included a reference to a specific clause in the legislation as a justification for not taking action. It felt like an excuse to avoid doing their job, which unfortunately seems to reflect a broader issue with work ethic in the province.

In my view, no complaint should be dismissed outright. Every complaint deserves to be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly. Furthermore, their website appears to show a preference for assisting certain minority groups, which raises concerns about fairness and potential discrimination within their own complaint process.

If no one is being held accountable, then what is the purpose of this organization

Singh

An institution for public but such a low reviews?
No power but can recommend solutions. A school kid can recommend fair solutions.
Shouldn’t government introspect the amount of money spend on these organizations with no authority to enforce fairness.

James S.

Disappointed in the Office of the Ombudsperson. I approached them with a serious and well-documented concern about systemic issues and a lack of accountability within a public body. Despite providing clear evidence and following all proper steps, my complaint was dismissed without a meaningful investigation.

The process felt opaque and dismissive—more focused on closing the file than getting to the truth. It’s frustrating when the very office meant to ensure fairness and accountability appears unwilling to dig deeper or challenge the actions of powerful institutions. I expected better from an independent oversight body.

If you’re thinking of filing a complaint, be prepared for a long wait and little follow-through. Sadly, this experience has eroded my confidence in government oversight.

T S.

If I could give zero stars I would have. This office is a complete fraud. It does not even practice what it preaches and it treats the public unfairly. The people hired to conduct investigations and determine if public bodies have treated the public fairly are so incompetent and unqualified and make serious mistakes and this office refuses to speak with the person and take complaints and requests for review over the phone. The person who investigated my complaint made serious mistakes in every page of her 13 page decision she did not even identify the issues correctly and she said she could not find any unfairness yet there are case summaries where this office did find unfairness for the exact same issues. The fact that this office refuses to let people make complaints about serious errors made by their staff over the phone to a manager is inexcusable.

Julie F.

After reading all the bad reviews, I thought I would give it a try anyways. Just a joke. I had a complaint about our city bylaw officers not doing their job. I was given names of other people to contact in the city, with no response from them. They lead me on saying they would do an investigation but then just stop replying.

Alex L.

Unfortunately have to leave this review because I had such an unbelievably terrible experience with this office; despite their efforts I was made to wait almost an entire year, and somehow ended up in an even worse situation than before. They were unable to act on what is an objectively unfair situation.

Viviano N.

From opening file in mid '23 with a BCO case worker (CW) who'd bring her belated 'conclusion' in late fall the *next* yr, I'm concerned this oversight org. bakes ineptitude into its services.

The CW's summary stmts weren't coherent, not answering the most pertinent Q's of my rationale for case action. Consider the fact I remain no more informed nearly 1.5 yrs later, having brought so-called 3P 'scrutiny' into play.

Understandably, BC's ombuds-MAN is deluged with cases in light of contemptuous gov't practices. Yet, my experience with BCO tells of its own issues needing a magnifying glass. It makes one wonder what entity can audit the BCO.

Cole M.

Thanks for nothing I’m a very injured person in need of some defence in a situation and I have been denied any help I have no other way to get myself any defense other then to advocate for myself and I have very intense brain injury’s and I’m in long term care with a home and have a clbc worker but am not being defended by her so I’m trying my best so I thought I could reach out do to this government company clbc snot standing
Beside me as my workers supposed to do thanks for nothing to your employee Jessie for
Nothing he’s a pathetic nobody who is not trained to do his job and makes his pathetic self look more pathetic by being misinformed by the people I called him about and not defending his office and making the ombudsman’s worth way less all due to his lack of knowledge and lack of respect for his bosses name your making yourself look 👀 pathetic having people like this run your office I see hundreds of complaints showing how pathetic everything has got with your lack of knowledge due to the pathetic employees like Jessie you have hired again thanks for nothing