Scott Anderson
NOW Magazine
Apparently Tory cuts to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) have made it so lean and mean that the agency says it no longer needs five case officers whose contracts will expire at the end of this month.
After taking it on the chin from critics, and even the provincial ombud last year, for the massive backlog in cases and the closure of offices around the province, the OHRC claims it has its act together and no longer requires the investigators.
According to Remy Beauregard, OHRC executive director, the number of cases dropped from 2,800 to 2,200 last year and is expected to continue to decline. The Commission will just have to get along with the remaining 42 case officers it has on hand.
"People were brought in to (address the backlog) and that job has been done," he says.
Critics suggest that the declining numbers may have more to do with the fact that the OHRC has been cut so deep that people aren't bothering to launch complaints anymore.
"The caseload still warrants the need for those individuals," says a skeptical NDP MPP Rosario Marchese. "The public will lose out on service. It (the cuts) will put the quality of work at the OHRC in jeopardy."
Courtesy of the NOW MARCH 9-15, 2000
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