The 2019 annual reports for Saskatchewan’s Ombudsman and Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner, Mary McFadyen, were tabled on April 27. This past year, over 3,800 people contacted the Ombudsman’s office to seek assistance.
“Some of the people who contacted us were frustrated – they felt the provincial or municipal government officials they were dealing with didn’t understand the problem, or were not being fair. We were able to listen and provide an impartial review of their concerns – and if we found they were treated unfairly, we helped get an appropriate resolution,” McFadyen said.
In 2019, the Ombudsman for Saskatchewan was able to help vulnerable populations, including inmates and long-term care residents. For example, “Perry” and “Paula” said when their father moved into a long-term care home, the cost of his medicine went up considerably: on average, from $45/month to $113/month. The Ombudsman investigated whether the Saskatchewan Health Authority reasonably managed the medication costs for residents.
For safety reasons, staff of long-term care homes do not dispense medications to residents unless they are purchased from the pharmacy holding the pharmacy services contract for the facility. The Ombudsman found this made residents into a captive market.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority is responsible for ensuring these costs are at least competitive with community pharmacies. McFadyen found the authority needed to improve its pharmacy procurement and fee structure agreements to guarantee reasonable medication costs for residents.
Her office investigated the inmate discipline system in provincial correctional centres. Under legislation, inmates are entitled to a full and fair hearing if they are charged with disciplinary offences such as fighting, engaging in gang activity, threatening people, or trying to escape. When charged, they are brought before a panel to determine whether they are guilty and if so, what sanctions will be applied. McFadyen found several aspects of the system were not being conducted fairly.
For example, inmates were often not given enough information about the charges beforehand in order to prepare for the hearing, they could not call other inmates to testify on their behalf and they could not question staff witnesses.
She found the discipline panels composed of correctional facility staff members often had to decide between the testimony of inmates and their own co-workers and supervisors, making it difficult, if not impossible, to be objective.
Also, since sanctions were applied as soon as the panel made its decision, inmates saw the legislated appeal process as a waste of time. By the time they won their appeal, they had already served the sanctions.
McFadyen made nine recommendations aimed at making sure inmates could properly present their cases, addressing bias and the appearance of bias of panel members and implementing a training program for all panel members to help them conduct fair hearings.
Ombudsman Saskatchewan continued to receive complaints about municipalities. Investigations this year focussed on councils giving public notice before making certain decisions like setting their remuneration or closing roads and dealing with allegations of council member misconduct. McFadyen noted many council members still don’t understand the conflict of interest rules – some even thought the Ombudsman was making up the rules.
This was highlighted by a SARM resolution passed at its mid-year convention in November 2019 by an 87 per cent majority – the Ombudsman appeared to adopt a grey area concept of a conflict of interest and should be “made to adhere to the definition of conflict of interest as it appears in The Municipalities Act.”
As Saskatchewan's Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner, McFadyen’s Office received more calls than in 2018. In 2019, McFadyen’s Office received 17 inquires and 8 disclosures of allegations of wrongdoing.
