What happens next?

We look into complaints confidentially, protecting your personal information (see our Énoncé de confidentialité for more details).

Before launching an investigation, we check, in particular, whether: 

• we have jurisdiction—in other words, whether our mandate allows us to intervene;

• you have first filed a complaint with the management team of the entity in question. 

See Can we investigate your complaint for more details.

If our review determines that we have the jurisdiction to examine your complaint, your case is then assigned to a member of our team, who gathers relevant information for your case, both from you and from the entity that is the subject of your complaint.We have broad investigative powers. City staff must answer our questions and provide us with all documents we deem relevant and useful to the investigation. We analyze all the information received. We conduct an on-site visit or visits if necessary. We may also conduct audits or legal research (municipal by-laws, legislation, court decisions, legal doctrine, etc.).

Following the investigation, we are able to determine whether or not a complaint is valid.

A complaint is upheld if our investigation shows that an entity’s decision, action, or omission has violated your rights or caused you harm.

When a complaint is upheld, the case can be resolved in various ways. We always strive to collaborate with the City of Montréal to find a reasonable solution or common ground.

Here are some examples of successful outcomes of our interventions:

• Improvement of a procedure, a process, or communications (e.g., revision of the information contained on the City of Montréal web page);
• Completion of work (e.g., repairs to a sidewalk or roadway);
• Implementation of traffic-calming measures (e.g., installation of speed bumps on a section of road); 
• Issuing of a refund (e.g., following a billing error);
• Review or reversal of a decision (e.g., overturning someone’s eviction from a community garden).

The entity against which the complaint was made may also commit to resolving a situation or taking one or more actions within a specified time. When this is the case, we systematically follow up to ensure that the City honours its commitment.

When efforts to reach a resolution with the entity in question are unsuccessful or we decide that there is a lack of adequate co-operation, we may issue a formal recommendation.

The entity must either accept it, specifying how it will implement the recommendation, or reject it, and explain the reasons why.

A complaint is dismissed when:

• our investigation has concluded that the decision made or action taken by the entity was not incorrect; or 
• we determine that the entity against which you made your complaint acted reasonably, fairly, or appropriately under the circumstances.

We will inform you of our decision not to proceed further and explain the reasons why.

Following our investigation, we will contact you to inform you verbally, clearly and with specifics, of our findings. 

We will then send you a closing letter, which will summarize your complaint, our investigation, our analysis, and our conclusions.