Public Reports, Office of the Ombudsperson

Office of the Ombudsperson for British Columbia, Annual and Systemic Reports, 2008-2011

As an independent officer of the BC Legislature, the ombudsperson is required to submit an annual report to the legislature each year. The ombudsperson also has the power to investigate provincial matters he or she considers to be in the public interest and to submit a report (known as a systemic report) on any such investigation to the legislature.

In my capacity as outreach and communications officer for the BC ombudsperson’s office, I had somewhat varying roles for these two types of reports.

Annual Reports: I coordinated all aspects of the report production process, including editing the 70-80 case studies that the office’s approximately 20 complaint investigators submitted, so as to harmonize the writing styles and ensure the facts of each case study were clear. I also proofread the entire document and liaised with the Queen’s Printer, who did the layout, graphic design and printing for us. I then coordinated the distribution of the hard copy reports to the legislature and to each of the several dozen authorities that fall under the ombudsperson’s jurisdiction.

Finally, since we used the publication of the annual reports as an opportunity to educate the public about the role of the provincial ombudsperson, I created a communications plan to support the release of each report. This included selecting case studies to highlight on our website and in news releases, preparing the ombudsperson for media questions, and liaising with journalists to set up interviews or answer routine questions on the ombudsperson’s behalf.

Systemic Reports: During my time in this role, the office’s systemic investigations team conducted four major investigations, which resulted in public reports on safe drinking water, income assistance, and residential care for seniors. Part 2 of our Best of Care report on seniors’ care (published in two volumes) was not released until after I had left the office, but I made substantial contributions to the second part of that report over the course of 2009-2011. I worked closely with the office’s systemic investigations team by helping to both draft and edit many sections of each of these reports. The levels of editing I carried out ranged from substantive to proofreading. I also coordinated the physical production of the reports and liaised with Queen’s Printer, who provided us with graphic design, layout and printing services.

Finally, I developed communications plans for each report release, prepared the office’s website with supporting materials, wrote and distributed news releases, pitched stories to journalists, fielded media inquiries, and helped the ombudsperson prepare for media interviews.