B.C. government creates more oversight for public service firings

Legislation has been introduced in B.C. that would give the province's merit commissioner the authority to review all public service dismissals for just cause.

It follows the recommendations made by B.C. ombudsperson Jay Chalke last April in his report into the 2012 firings of seven Ministry of Health researchers and a contractor including one man,co-op student Roderick MacIsaac, who later killed himself.

Chalkefound key decision-makers acted on a flawed and rushed investigation into what turned out to be erroneous information provided by awhistleblower, and that none of the workers should have been terminated.

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He recommended the province amend the Public Service Act to give the merit commissioner the authority to review public service dismissals to ensure public service standards and legal requirements have been met.

There are around 25 dismissals of public employees for just cause per year, according to the government.

The merit commissioner willhave responsibility to provide oversight, conduct independent reviewsand publicly report out those aggregate results after the result, said Carole James.

"Really it's about putting the checks and balances in place, so once this has occurred, you have someone reporting to the public ... about any systemic changes that need to occur," said James.

"It's important to bring the cause of the individuals who were fired, the individual who lost his life. I think all of us will remember this as a black mark, and my hope is these kind of changes .. will begin to bring some comfort and some change for those families."

B.C. health researcher firing scandal timeline

With files from Megan Thomas