'Vitally important': City of Regina to conduct review of current whistleblower policy

A Regina City Council meeting on February 24, 2021. (Gareth Dillistone / CTV Regina)

The City of Regina plans to update its whistleblower policy to protect employees from any potential retribution that could come with submitting a complaint.

City council unanimously passed a motion that will direct the internal and external auditor to review the current policy.

“We need to have strong policies on harassment and bullying so there is a clear process on how to deal with those situations,” said counc. Cheryl Stadnichuk.

The current whistleblower policy was established in January 2020 to provide protections and procedures for employees to confidentially and anonymously report complaints.

Under the current policy, the city manager reviews the reports to determine if the allegation should be investigated.

Counc. Lori Bresciani said the city manager should not be the one who receives the reports, comparing it to employees having to go directly to their CEO with complaints.

“The whistleblower policy is vitally important,” Bresciani said.

“It’s important that employees feel protected in the workplace.”

A report will examine whistleblower policies in other jurisdictions.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel here,” interim city manager Jim Nicol said.

“We’re doing a jurisdictional review of best practices across the country.”

Nicol said this has been a longstanding request from council and administration needs to act on it.

The city has received roughly 17 whistleblower complaints since 2020, according to Nicol. He said the majority are allegations of harassment and inappropriate behaviour.

The city has a standalone harassment policy that allows employees to go to their respective unions or supervisors to make a complaint. Nicol said a whistleblower policy is not needed to bring forth those types of allegations unless there is potential for retribution.

Counc. Bob Hawkins said it is important the city has a good whistleblower policy that can sort out the “strong complaints” from the ill-willed ones.

“Not every whistleblower complaint is a valid complaint,” Hawkins said, adding some complaints are used to “harass” management.

A report is expected to come back to council in the next few months.