St. John's passes whistleblower bylaw
Federal legislation has not produced results, while province has not followed through on promise to protect employees
If you blow the whistle on the city, St. John’s council says it has your back.
Council passed a new whistleblower bylaw on Monday aimed at protecting workers who report wrongdoing.
"This is done with confidentiality — 100 per cent," Coun. Sandy Hickman said.
"No one should know about this once an employee brings information forward."
The issue has come to the forefront in St. John’s over the past couple of months, after a whistleblower complaint sparked a review of alleged improper spending at the city depot.
Police are now investigating the matter.
Hickman says the bylaw was in the works for two years before the depot investigation began.
He says it's strongly worded, with the intent of fully protecting city employees who report wrongdoing.
All bark and no bite
But David Sutton, who's with a national group of whistleblower watchdogs, says legislation like this can be all bark and no bite.
He says similar legislation was introduced at the federal level five years ago.
But it's produced zero results — complaints have been received, but none of them have led to formal investigations.
Provincially, the Progressive Conservatives promised during the 2007 election campaign to enact whistleblower protections for government employees.
More than four years later, that hasn’t happened.
The province contends that it is still studying the issue.