In her visit to Olds, Marie Paturel, an investigator for the Alberta Ombudsman, found that those making appointments to see her were mostly interested in somebody willing to listen.“I think people appreciate being heard and appreciate having a face-to-face conversation about their issues and if we can help them to explain what the process is,” Paturel said.“Because the process is, once we find out that it's something we have jurisdiction over, we usually get them to write in. And if it's something we don't have jurisdiction, we can send them off to another body or other organization.”On Aug. 20, Paturel was one of a few ombudsman investigators visiting the Olds Recreation Centre on 52 Street. They were in town to raise awareness about what their office could do for citizens and to take complaints.The ombudsman's role is to investigate complaints against the provincial government and to recommend changes. The office is independent from the government.Paturel said they had eight appointments and some involved explaining the jurisdiction of the ombudsman.If a person's complaint was outside the scope of the ombudsman, she said they were directed to the appropriate organization.“It's a matter of just being able to explain to them that the issues we look at are about administrative fairness of decisions that they've been faced with,” she said. “Some of them weren't but we've been able to guide them to other resources or other bodies that will be able to help them. And it's been a wide variety of issues.”One of the complaints the ombudsman gets involve entitlement programs.“So somebody who's been denied AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) and so they've appealed it. The next process is they come to us and we can look at the administrative fairness of the actual decision-making process around that.”[email protected]
