Complaints

The City recognizes the importance of public input and welcomes this valuable form of feedback. The Complaint Management and Resolution Policy offer community members options to submit complaints. Additionally, it provides City staff with consistent practices to address complaints about City programs, facilities, services and staff.

What is a complaint?

You can make a complaint if you are unhappy with the delivery of City services, or if you did not have a positive experience. The complaint may include:

• the service itself
• actions/lack of actions by an employee
• an issue with a policy, program, process or procedure

A complaint is different from a request for service, feedback, compliment or suggestion. For these, please contact Service Oshawa.

Examples of complaints:

• You have requested something from a City employee, and the request is not completed
• The service that you received was not as you expected it to be
• You feel you were treated unfairly
• You have contacted the City and did not receive a response

Under this policy, the following types of complaints do not apply:

• Anonymous Complaints
• Complaints about a decision or recommendation of Council or a Committee of Council
• Complaints regarding whether a meeting of Council was appropriately held as per the Closed Meeting provisions outlined in the Municipal Act, 2001 (the Ontario Ombudsman governs closed meeting complaints )
• Complaints about Members of Council (they are governed by the Council Code of Conduct and investigated by the Integrity Commissioner)
• Complaints which involve ongoing litigation

• Complaints from Employees about other Employees or working conditions
• Frivolous, Vexatious or Unreasonable Requests or Complaints
• Issues that have statutory review and appeal processes, including but not limited to Freedom of Information Requests, development charge levies, land use planning, by-law notices, orders and appeals
• Outside boards and agencies including, the Oshawa Public Library and Robert McLaughlin Gallery
• Requests for Service
• Requests to change a by-law
• Suggestions
• Civil matters

Complaint resolution

The City will provide a final response to the complaint within 20 business days. If this timeframe cannot be met, the City will keep you informed of the status.

If you are not happy with the outcome of the complaint process, or you feel like it was not handled correctly, you may contact the Ontario Ombudsman for further assistance.

Make a complaint

If you are unsure whether your concern should be addressed through this complaint process contact Service Oshawa. This allows most issues to be resolved quickly.

If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of your concern, please submit a complaint via our Complaint Management and Resolution form. This form can be submitted using one of the following methods:

• Service Oshawa Online
• Printable PDF form