Mr. Speaker, for years the legislative provincial ombudsmen and others have been urging the federal government to establish a federal ombudsman's office accountable to parliament.
Such a parliamentary ombudsman would have the legislative mandate to investigate matters of administration by all federal departments as well as agencies or bodies directly or indirectly accountable to the federal crown for the proper performance of their function.
The federal government has resisted this concept and has supported appointing executive ombudsmen or ombudsman-like offices in various areas: corrections, banking, official languages, RCMP, the military, the airline industries, and now it is looking at an ombudsman for the Export Development Corporation.
While these ombudspeople may do good work, they are not accountable to parliament but in many cases are accountable to the executive branch of government or corporate heads.
There would be immense value gained by having a federal ombudsman system accountable to parliament. I am urging this government to establish such an office and to integrate these existing ombudsman offices into that system so that there will be a complete, fully mandated, accountable parliamentary ombudsman system to address the many complaints involving federal government administration.