Service Ontario

The employees here are hit or miss. Some days they are okay, most days they are rude and are not shy to insult you.

Wait… a government service getting 5 stars… how is that possible? I’ll tell you how… an employee by the name of Fariza (sp).
We headed to this location (inside the small mall on the north west corner of Martin Grove and Highway 7) strictly because the one on Keele was packed… and by packed, I mean lined up inside stretching all the way outside the door. Yikes!
When we got to this location, there were only 6 people in line ahead of us. Score! However, despite having only 6 people in line of us, one would think that you’d get served pretty fast. Wrong. It’s not that the staff aren’t efficient, it’s just that due to size constraints (it’s fairly small office) there’s only 2 wickets that can handle OHIP card renewals… but those windows also do licences, plates, transfers, etc… so if you’re there for an OHIP card, you have to wait for one of them to become available. It would be much more efficient if those windows were dedicated to one task… but it’s government so they don’t do anything related to efficiency.
Anyways, it took about 20 minutes to get to a window. but it was worth it. The person we dealt with (Fariza…think Theresa with an F instead) was simply amazing. She was warm, funny and efficient. While reading my partners drivers license, she even wished him a happy birthday. Seriously… she was fantastic and we spent most of our time at the counter with her laughing… she was like a long lost relative that you haven’t seen in a while (although she wasn’t).
Due to some problem with a drive clean form, she could not complete the licensing part so we had to call that government agency to get it corrected. Fariza recommended that we step out of line, get the issue resolved by phone and then come back up to her once completed. Unfortunately, drive clean could not resolve the issue immediately. We advised Fariza and she explained to us of next steps.
Later that day drive clean called and the issue was resolved… so we had to trek back to this location. When we arrived the line up must have been 20 deep and our spirits dropped. Fariza recognized us and called out to us by name. She took us next, allowing us to by pass the line. She had everything completed in less than a minute and then we were on our way.
She was fantastic… everything you don’t expect in a government employee… efficient, pleasant, welcoming and dedicated to clients. Amazing