Jul 8, 2014

[En anglais seulement] In light of the flood situation in southern Manitoba, we will be suspending investigations related to any municipalities and communities under local or provincial states of emergency for 30 days. We will review the situation after 30 days. This decision was taken after careful review of all outstanding municipal complaint investigations, and in light of the impact on municipal officials of their ongoing efforts to deal with the disruption and devastation caused by flooding.

If you wish to submit a complaint under FIPPA, PHIA or The Ombudsman Act to us about one of the affected municipalities during this period, you may still do so. Unless a situation is urgent, we will defer contacting the municipality until our suspension has been lifted. This suspension also applies to ongoing investigations ? we will not make inquiries of affected municipalities nor require that they respond to outstanding inquiries.

We are also reminding municipalities with pending FIPPA access requests that when responding to access requests they may have the authority under subsection 15(1) of FIPPA to extend the time for responding for 30 days, or for a further period with the consent of Manitoba Ombudsman. During this period, we will respond to such requests for longer extensions within one business day of the receipt of such requests.

If you have any questions about our 30-day suspension of investigations related to flood-affected municipalities, or if you need to extend the response time for FIPPA access requests, please contact our office at 204-982-9130, 1-800-665-0531, or ombudsman@ombudsman.mb.ca.