St. John's passes whistleblower bylaw

If you blow the whistle on the city, St. Johns 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 confidentiality100 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. Johns 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 resultscomplaints have been received, but none of them have led to formal investigations.

Provincially, the Progressive Conservativespromised during the 2007 election campaign to enact whistleblower protections for government employees.

More than four years later, that hasnt happened.

The province contends that it is still studying the issue.