The Sun Country Health Region Board has fired chief executive officer Calvin Tant.
Tant's position was effectively terminated Thursday, Sept. 9 when board chairperson, Sharon Bauche, delivered the news.
"Mr. Tant, when I told him, was very quiet. Very quiet," explained Bauche, in a reserved tone. "I told him and I'm sure it was a shock to him, but he was very quiet."
This comes only a couple weeks after the health region announced the resignation of Hal Schmidt, vice-president of finance and corporate services for SCHR, amid a whirlwind of allegations surrounding his previous employment history and his credentials
Bauche said the board did not have a sole cause for terminating Tant's position, but instead it was many little issues which had developed over the past few months. Some of which were highlighted in a report delivered by the Hay Group, a third-party reviewer hired by the health region's board to look at the hiring policies and procedures in place.
"We looked at some of the information we were getting fed through the report and some it [was] concerns we already had from things we'd seen happening," said Bauche. "So we sat down and said it's just time for new leadership because the management team [is] working very hard and we need to get them a good leader."
"He's been a good CEO for us, but it's just in the last few months we've had some discussions," Bauche continued. "This wasn't with cause. It was many little [things]. We looked at the leadership of the management team and we just wondered if we had the right manager to lead our team in place. And we just felt we needed a change in leadership to lead us through into the future with the complexity of the issues we have to deal with."
Since the board did not give Tant sufficient notice they were terminating his position, he is subject to receiving severance pay.
"This was no cause, just little things we wanted to change," said Bauche. "If you don't give someone notice, you have to give them severance. So there will be severance. But right now that's just in the negotiation with Mr. Tant."
Tant had worked as the health region's chief executive officer since Oct. 31, 2005, when he took over from former CEO Lee Spencer, who retired Dec. 31, 2005.
With a Masters of Health Science from the University of Toronto, Tant's employment history spans several provinces with positions including: president and chief executive officer for Burntwood Regional Health Authority in Thompson, Man. from 1996 to 2001; executive director for Prince George Regional Hospital Northern Health Authority from 2001 to 2003; instructor for 'Principals of Management' at the College of New Caledonia in Prince George, B.C.; and lecturer for 'Health Issues in Northern Communities and Population Health' at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, B.C. He worked as an instructor and lecturer from 2004 to 2005 before re-locating his family from Prince George, B.C. to Weyburn where he took up the position as CEO.
His experience in planning, building and managing programs, facilities and infrastructure in rural and northern communities made him an ideal candidate for the board to hire. The board had great confidence in Tant's ability, right up until recent months when many issues started to develop.
One of these issues, as mentioned earlier in the article, was that Tant's hiring of Schmidt came into question.
In order to determine whether proper procedures were followed by Tant when he hired Schmidt, the health region's board contracted a third-party review. After the board received the report, they had a serious decision to make.
The report presented by the third-party reviewer, the Hay Group out of Regina, shed some light on how policies and procedures are followed by Sun Country Health Region employees. Bauche said the board was pleased to learn the policies in place at the health region were "favourably comparable with the best in the business," however, they also learned these policies were not always being properly documented. "We have to more formally document them," Bauche explained. "And we have to have a way of monitoring they are consistently followed. [And] in the case of Mr. Schmidt, some of those practices weren't consistently followed."
"We saw that and had other input and so that's why I say it wasn't cause but the leadership thing we needed to change," Bauche added.
With Tant no longer the CEO for the health region, Marga Cugnet, the current vice-president of Primary and Integrated Health, agreed to become the interim CEO.
"We needed someone right away and we asked Marga [Cugnet] because we have real confidence in her," said Bauche.
Cugnet has a vast amount of experience, and because of this experience the board felt confident she was the right person to step up and fill the position for the immediate future. She grew up in Weyburn and worked as the head nurse at Weyburn General Hospital at one time, giving her a unique knowledge of the region. Prior to the amalgamation of the health districts in 2002, she held a management position with South Central Health District. She then moved into a senior management position with Sun Country.
Now in the CEO position, Cugnet is responsible for choosing someone within her former department, Primary and Integrated Health, to fill her position.
"Right away when I talked to her, she said she was thinking of what she has to do because she has to re-organize her department [and] make sure these things are carried on," Bauche explained. "She has people I know she can elevate or move in because she knows the people."
"And that goes for Pam Haupstein too," Bauche continued. "We've made her the [interim] VP of finance [and corporate services]. She was the chartered accountant who led the finance department. She has to re-organize her department she can do the VP of finance too."
As for Heather Tant, Cal Tant's wife, the third-party review found no evidence of nepotism with her employment for the region.
"It came back and told us there was no direct interference from Mr. Tant in the hiring of Mrs. Tant into her position," said Bauche. "So we were really pleased to hear that. I went over to see Heather [Tant] and tell Heather that we like the work she's doing, she has been a great employee for us and she has a job with Sun Country."
The board hopes by having a new leader in place, they can put the public's lack of trust in the health region to rest.
"We're [hoping] we can now move on because we have so many important things to do here to provide health care to the region," said Bauche. "We're hoping with the change in leadership and moving ahead that will put those things to rest."
