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Premier Dalton McGuinty's office quickly rebuffed a demand today by André Marin, Ontario's ombudsman, that his mandate be expanded to include investigating hospitals, public educational institutions, and city councils.

At a press conference held for the release of his office's annual report, Mr. Marin blasted the conduct of public agencies in the ‘MUSH' sector, including municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals, which operate beyond the limits of his oversight. Those bodies “have become almost a law unto themselves,” Mr. Marin said. “They have carved themselves a nice, comfortable niche, a zone of immunity against oversight.”

A spokesperson for the ombudsman argued that current provincial-level investigative powers for ‘MUSH' agencies exercised by the Auditor General are inadequate, since they are directed primarily at financial irregularities and are not used in response to citizen complaints.

But the reaction of the Premier's office, which would have to endorse any expansion of Mr. Marin's mandate, was tepid at best.

Jane Almeida, a spokeswoman for Premier Dalton McGuinty, said that existing oversight by the Auditor General and local attention to hospitals and schools are adequate safeguards, and thus any expansion of Mr. Marin's power would be unnecessary.

Minister of Health George Smitherman expressed a similar sentiment, calling current oversight for the health sector “a pretty comprehensive regime of accountability.”

John Tory, leader of the provincial Progressive Conservatives, disagreed strongly with this argument. Mr. Tory said that “somebody needs to have the power to oversee hospitals.…universities, and schools,” and that recent deaths from C. difficile bacterial infection in Ontario hospitals demonstrated the necessity of extending Mr. Marin's powers to include them.

Within Mr. Marin's current area of responsibility – directly administered provincial agencies – his criticism for government conduct was scathing. Citing a “treasure trove of government maladministration” uncovered in his work over the past year, he singled out the Family Responsibility Office, a provincial agency that enforces child support payments, as suffering from “customer disservice syndrome.”

The Trillium Drug Program, which provides low-cost pharmaceuticals, meanwhile, behaves as though “the customer is always wrong,” he said.

Mr. Marin added that many Ontarians are trapped in “the ‘twilight zone' of public service.”