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Andre Marin alleges Bonnie Lysyk is trying to limit his office, which has tackled systemic issues in the past, to investigating nothing but individual complaints.

Richard J. Brennan / Toronto Star File photo

“This (the auditor general's proposal) would constitute a perilous and massive step backward in terms of accountability and transparency … it would lead to neutering and gutting our office of its most valuable tool to help people,” Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin said in a five-page letter.

Ontario Ombudsman André Marin is firing back at what he calls a “perilous” power play by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk to restrict his investigative authority.

The Star has obtained a five-page letter that Marin wrote to Lysyk after she urged MPPs on a legislative committee last week to limit the ombudsman’s office to investigating individual beefs from citizens instead of looking as well into larger systemic concerns.

That would leave Marin — whose 30 broad-based investigations have exposed such issues as illegal child-care operations and have pushed for better screening of diseases in newborns — limited to probing one-off complaints.

“What you propose is essentially the abolition of the ombudsman’s ‘own motion’ investigative authority, which has existed in the (Ombudsman) Act for 39 years and served Ontarians well,” wrote Marin, who is nearing the end of his second five-year term in the post.

“This would constitute a perilous and massive step backward in terms of accountability and transparency … it would lead to neutering and gutting our office of its most valuable tool to help people,” he said.

Lysyk, who became Ontario’s auditor general last year after holding a similar job in Saskatchewan, was testifying before a committee studying the Liberal government’s Bill 8 on improved accountability measures.

Among other things, the Public Sector and MPP Accountability and Transparency Act would extend the ombudsman’s powers to include oversight of municipalities, school boards and universities.

Lysyk argued her auditor general’s office, not the ombudsman, should be responsible for investigating systemic problems within the government and its agencies.

On Sunday night, she defended her remarks to the MPPs, saying she wanted to present a “different perspective.”

“Everybody has the right to talk to a committee of the legislature. Everybody should be able to share their views,” she told the Star. “‎Whatever they decide, I respect.”

The auditor general said she was taken aback by the ombudsman’s letter.

“‎Mr. Marin obviously has different views and doesn’t take kindly when you don’t have the same views. At least he didn’t call me a slippery pig,” she added, alluding to his report into overbilling at Hydro One.

Lysyk said she made her remarks to the committee in a bid to get “clarity” in areas in which both her office and Marin’s share oversight, such as their separate investigations into Hydro One.

Marin’s letter said he was “shocked” and “blindsided” by Lysyk’s testimony, which went largely unnoticed last Wednesday.

“The ombudsman’s focus has always been and will remain on issues of administrative fairness … while the auditor general’s role is primarily to ensure financial integrity. Our two offices have coexisted for decades,” he wrote. “Bill 8 does not propose any change that would fundamentally alter the current state of affairs.”

The dispute comes as both their offices have been investigating Hydro One overbilling of customers. Marin has already issued a report. The auditor is expected to address Hydro One in her annual report, due later this month.

Marin’s letter, dated Friday, follows a tweet from his account at @Ont_ombudsman calling Lysyk’s remarks to the committee an “astoundingly inept attack on Bill 8.”

Aside from Lysyk, Marin sent copies of his letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne and MPPs on the legislative committee studying Bill 8, among others.

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/01/ontario_ombudsman_accuses_auditor_general_of_perilous_power_play.html?app=noRedirect