On May 31, 2023, Ombudsperson Marc-André Dowd presented a brief to the Committee on Public Finance.
The brief is an update of the Protecteur du citoyen’s recommendations concerning the Act to facilitate the disclosure of wrongdoings relating to public bodies in 2019. These 21 recommendations were sent to the Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor, which published its own report in 2020.
The first topic is public integrity and reprisal protection developments in recent years.
In general, the Protecteur du citoyen’s recommendations continue to apply. For example, one of them concerned disclosure officers within departments and public agencies. The Protecteur du citoyen still feels that their current mandate should be changed so that they are internal respondents who can play a preventive role. The handling of disclosures made by the staff of public bodies should be the Protecteur du citoyen’s exclusive purview.
Lastly, the Protecteur du citoyen pinpoints priority issues. It would like the Act to be clearer regarding situations that warrant the public release of investigative conclusions and that it be free-standing in order to better distinguish public integrity mandates from the ombudsman’s traditional mandate. As well as insisting on the need to strengthen privacy protection, the Protecteur du citoyen proposes measures to improve whistleblower protection and to facilitate recourse should reprisal occur.
