As Orillia amended its customer service rules, councillors raised concerns about ensuring people with legitimate issues can still be heard
Orillia’s new customer service policy now includes protocol to handle “frivolous, vexatious, unreasonable or repeated requests.”
The customer service policy came back to council this week after the policy update adopted in late 2025 “unintentionally omitted” the section dealing with “frivolous, vexatious, unreasonable, or repeated requests.” Council passed a motion Monday to add the omitted section.
The policy presentation provided council an opportunity to ask staff about how complaints to the city are dealt with. Coun. Jay Fallis wanted to know how complaints are typically handled and how complaints that are “dismissed” can be challenged.
Lori Bolton, Orillia’s director of human resources (HR), said every complaint is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
“HR receives inquiries on a regular basis and those are confidential. The majority of the time, it’s handled by a return email or a return phone call,” said Bolton. “If it escalates, it would be reviewed by the department, then it would go to the department head or general manager.”
Bolton said the majority of complaints and concerns don’t come to council; they are handled on an administrative level and through correspondence with concerned parties.
Coun. Tim Lauer asked how a complainant can get to council if they have a “real problem.” Bolton said an issue could go to council, but that they’ve been able to deal with most, if not all, problems in-house.
“Or they have the right to go through the city’s municipal complaint policy, and that may come forward to council, depending on the nature of the complaint,” she said.
Lauer asked about the length of time it takes the city to get back to complainants.
“In my experience, the faster you can get back to somebody, even if you’re just telling them, ‘I don’t know and I’ll look into it, it’s really important,” Lauer said, adding he’d like to see the return policy set to 24-hours from the current 48-hour rule.
Bolton responded, saying 48 hours is the maximum.
“The majority of us get back to inquiries immediately, within a couple of hours or a day,” she said. “It’s just that we need to have a standard to meet for everybody, particularly in cases where you want to do a bit of research before you get back to them.”
Coun. Ralph Cipolla asked if the public could reach out to the integrity commissioner if they have a problem with staff or council members.
“You can reach out to the ombudsman if you don’t like the way something has been handled by customer service, staff or council,” Bolton said.
The ombudsman, Paul Dubé represents the Province of Ontario. The role of the ombudsman is to make sure you’ve been treated fairly by the Ontario government and public services, and that your rights have been respected. You can contact the ombudsman through its website: ombudsman.on.ca or call toll-free at 1-800-263-1830.
Residents wishing to request a service from the city can visit the website page at orillia.ca/service to submit a service request online, or visit the City Centre, or call the main line at 705-325-1311. The Municipal Complaint Policy is a process to manage formal complaints when concerns can’t be handled informally through a service request. At any time, residents can also contact their ward councillor or the mayor with a complaint.
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