How to make a complaint

If you have a complaint about an Ontario government or public service, we can help. We can take complaints about more than 1,000 government and public sector organizations.

Our services are confidential and free. If we can’t help with your complaint, we’ll work with you to get you the help you need.

This step-by-step guide explains our Office’s complaints process.

Before you contact us

Often, the best way to solve a problem is to bring it directly to the organization or program involved. Many organizations have a specific person or process to review your complaint or concern. 

You can:

  • Contact us if you aren’t sure if the organization has a complaints process or if you need help with the next steps
  • Ask the organization or program if they have a complaints process, then explain the issue and what you hope to achieve

If you still need help to resolve the problem, you can file a complaint with us. Here Is a step-by-step process to make your complaint:

You file your complaint

Prepare to file your complaint

It may be helpful for you to gather this information:

  • Names or titles of the people you dealt with at the organization
  • Dates you contacted them, or they contacted you
  • Written communication you received from them about your issue
  • The response you received if you made a complaint to the organization

You don’t have to submit documents to us as part of your complaint. But we may ask for some of this information as part of our review.

Submit your complaint

Choose one of these methods to make your complaint:

  • Website: Use our secure complaint form
  • Email: info@ombudsman.on.ca
  • Phone:
    • Toll free (in Ontario): 1-800-263-1830
    • Outside Ontario: 416-586-3300
    • TTY: 1-866-411-4211
  • Fax: 416-586-3485
  • Mail:
    Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario
    483 Bay Street
    10th floor, South Tower
    Toronto, ON M5G 2C9
  • In person appointment: At our Toronto office
    • In-person appointments must be made at least 24 hours in advance. Here’s how:

You can have an Elder, support person, family member, caregiver, caseworker, friend or other person help you file your complaint or contact our Office.

We assess your complaint

Review and questions

A person from our Office will review your complaint. They may follow up with you to ask questions. We will:

  • Provide a safe, welcoming environment where you feel heard
  • Take time to answer your questions
  • Handle your concerns respectfully, confidentially and impartially
  • Ask for your consent if we need to share details about your complaint

Refer you if we can’t help

If your complaint is about an issue that we can’t resolve, we will help you find the right place to take your complaint. This is known as a referral. 

We can also connect you to services, programs and resources to support you. This includes options you may not have considered.

We gather more information

We may:

  • Contact officials at the organization you’re complaining about
  • Conduct research and review documents
  • Reach out to you or the organization for more details at different points in the process

We will keep you updated on our progress.

Outcome

At this stage, we have reviewed your concern and spoken with you and the organization as needed.

We will inform you about the outcome of your case. This includes the steps we took, our findings, and the reasons for the outcome. Our staff work closely with government and public sector bodies to resolve complaints and make suggestions to keep problems from happening again.

Ready to file a complaint?

Start my complaint