City investigates allegations of bullying, harassment at Calgary Drop-In Centre

The City of Calgary says it's investigating allegations of bullying and harassmentby staff at the Calgary Drop-in Centre after a CBC report earlier this week revealed a former employee had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after suffering sexual harassment and psychologicalabuse at the hands of co-workers.

The city andthe provincial government provide annual funding to the homeless shelter, which is the largest of its kind in Canada, and has an annual operating budget of approximately $23 million.

The city contributes on average $500,000 per year. The province handed over $13.3 million to the shelter last year.

The city'sgeneral manager of community services said certain requirements must be met by organizations that receive municipal funding, whichincludes certain governance approaches and human resource practices.

"At this point in time with regard to the allegations that have come out, we have an expectation of investigating if they've been following those practices as required with regards to our granting process, so that's underway as we speak," said Kurt Hanson.

• Threats, bullying, harassment: Former staff at Calgary Drop-In Centre describe 'toxic' workplace

The provincial government released a similar statement to CBCNews on Tuesday regarding the funding it provides to the shelter.

"Staff with the community and social services ministry have contacted the [Drop-In] centre and will be looking over their code of conduct and harassment policies to ensure they comply with conditions set out in their grant funding agreement," said ministry spokesperson Samantha Power.

As for the city's probe, Hanson said the investigation will be conducted jointly by the city and the Drop-in Centre. He said the city has a variety of options once it gets the results of the investigation, including either continuing to fund the shelter or terminating its support.

"Either funding or not funding is always an option,but Ithink there might be other things that present themselves to take corrective action and Iwould not be in a good position to respond at this point in time with regard to what those may be," said Hanson.

Bryan Labby is an enterprise reporter with CBC Calgary. If you have a good story idea or tip, you can reach him at bryan.labby@cbc.ca or on Twitter at @CBCBryan.