March
7, 2001
Gold
Medal Leaks
To
the extent that the Campbell government is capable of embarrassment,
at least six recent leaks ought to have caused some blushing.
Shortly before Christmas, Joy MacPhail was able to announce
the changes government was making to Pharmacare and auxiliary
health benefits. In February, Sindi Hawkins was exposed
for hiring a political friend. The Ministry of Forests paper
on "transformation projects" found its way to
this website, and now a forestry paper on the Forest Practices
Code has been distributed to journalists. Those leaks are
all of the "I gotcha" sort that reveal information
a little ahead of when it would otherwise be made public.
Far more damaging is the recent leak reported by Province
columnist Michael Smyth with respect to the reality of cutting
education and setting local school boards up to take the
blame. Most damaging is the draft briefing material for
the Minister of Health Services. The health and education
documents show the Campbell government as a pack of liars.
Government
is now searching for the whistle-blowers responsible for
sharing secrets with the public. Keep in mind that the leaked
documents are not of the sort where someone can make a profit
by gaining access to information. The documents are the
kind that should be public from day one as they reveal public
policy or, in the case of Hawkins, public behaviour. When
in opposition the Campbell Liberals spoke of protecting
such whistle-blowers but now they turn to search and destroy
tactics. While being grilled in question period over his
failure to stand up for mental patients, Minister of State
for Mental Health, Gulzar Cheema, twice referred to the
draft briefing material for the Minister of Health Services
as stolen. He thereby authenticated the documents while
digging himself in deeper on the contradictions between
that document and the New Era promises.
One
section of the briefing documents offers illustrative budget
management strategies but then qualifies the illustrations
by saying "health authorities will develop plans and
strategies to suit their regions, and population health
needs." Of $437.3 million in illustrated "savings",
over half ($257.7 million) comes from a category called
"manage performance". The descriptive note elaborates
by saying "Ministry will establish overall service
targets for health regions. Focus will be on essential services,
and appropriate care in the most appropriate setting. Service
reductions will be made primarily in elective procedures
in Acute Care, waitlists will grow. Hospital beds will
close. Facilities may be closed or converted to primary
care centres. Up to 5,000 lay-offs, including non-care and
patient care positions. Job action will likely occur."
They
sure didn't say anything like that during the election.
If you had such a startling document in your hands would
you participate in the government's cover-up or would you
leak it? The people of BC should be distributing gold medals
to the whistle-blowers for their outstanding service to
the public.
February
18, 2002
Hawkins
on Paramedics and Whistle-Blowing
On
June 4, 1997, (quoted below) Sindi Hawkins spoke in the
legislature in defense of paramedics and advocating
legislation to protect "whistle-blowers".
On
February 15, 2002, the Deputy Minister for Hawkins began
a witch hunt to find and probably fire the person
who blew the whistle on Hawkins paying a friend $125 an
hour to make a simple presentation; and on January 17th,
2002, Hawkin's government announced a reduction in the number
of paramedics! How things change.
Hawkins
wasn't alone in advocating protection for whistle-blowers.
A search through Hansard on the topic finds dozens of occasions
where prominent members of the Campbell government strongly
defended whistle-blowers while in opposition. The government
that promised to be the most open in BC's history seems
to need whistle-blowers and those people who inform the
public need protection from the Campbell government.
S.
Hawkins: "I know that there have been serious concerns
raised by paramedics. Many of them speak to me on the premise
that I won't divulge their confidentiality -- and I won't.
But there are serious, serious concerns in the Ambulance
Service over patient care -- certainly over some of the
situations that we reviewed earlier today and with respect
to what culminated in the ambulance review study that the
minister initiated earlier this year."
"I
can understand guidelines that are reasonable, but when
it comes to concerns about patient safety and care, and
it comes to the point where they feel that they can't get
a response from the ministry or the officials that they
talk to. . . . It seems to be a little unreasonable that
they can't convey those concerns any other way without retribution.
And I'm wondering. . . . I recall part of a letter, or a
story about a letter that was published in the Province
several months ago. It had to do with a paramedic who actually
wrote to the paper and said how grateful he was that bystanders
stopped and assisted at the site of an accident. And apparently
he was disciplined for that. He couldn't do that. I can
understand it if it's divulging the confidentiality of a
patient or whatever, but to be disciplined, to get a letter
on file for thanking a bystander. . . . I think that's a
little bit unreasonable."
"Other
provinces have legislation called whistle-blower legislation
when it has to do with safety and concerns of public safety.
Has this government given any consideration to introducing
that kind of legislation for employees like this, who feel
that they have significant concerns they want to report
but can't because they fear disciplinary action or loss
of their job? Has this government considered anything like
whistle-blower legislation? "
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