A $ 1 million report, written after a recommendation to dissolve the Manitoba office that protects the elderly in care, has been sitting on the desk of the Minister of Health since December, leaving the future of the plan in question, since no work has been done to be a reality.
A scathing report by the General Auditor of Manitoba in July 2023 revealed a litany of problems in the Office of Protection for People in Care.
The office, which is within the Department of Health of the Province, is responsible for receiving and investigating reports of abuse or negligence of people in personal care or hospitals.
The auditor found that serious accusations of abuse and complaints were taking more than three years to be addressed by the provincial office. The findings of irregularities were sometimes revoked by a director in the office, according to the report.
In response, the progressive conservative government said that office would dissolve and create a new independent investigation office, which would directly inform the legislature instead of a government department.
William Burnett, a former manitoba’s judge Court of King’s Bench and the Court of Appeals, was hired to guide the creation of the new office.
But after the electoral victory of the NDP in October 2023, the plan seems to be stagnant, apparently without new money assigned for the project and no firm commitment of the Minister of Health in its future.
The president of a national seniors defense organization says that it is “inexcusable” that the report has been sitting for months.
“Changes were promised: real substantive changes … Including a new office that would take Manitoba out of these dark corners already hidden the light,” said the president and director of the CEO of Canage, Laura also Watts, who defended the dissolution of protection for people in the care office in 2023.
Also Watts said he was horrified when he read the report of the General Auditor, who found cases in which residents of the personal care home were beaten, slapped, kicked and sexually attacked were not considered “abuses” by the office.
Given the questionable decisions of the office, the best solution to keep last year students safe was to create an independent office to investigate such accusations, he said.
“Your surveillance never really works,” he also said. “We have already seen that the system was quite broken.”
The former judge paid more than $ 1m
The Minister of Health, Uzoma Asagwara, told CBC News that they have been exploring the recommendations in Burnett’s report since they received it in December, but did not offer details.
The minister refused to say if they are advancing with the plan for an independent office, saying that it was “the approach of the previous government.”
“We continue with him [Burnett] To make sure we can learn from that work, “said the minister on the former judge’s report.
“We made other commitments that we are delivering for the Manitobans.”
A copy of the Burnett contract obtained by CBC through the laws of freedom of information shows that it was hired from September 1, 2023 until the end of August 2025.
The proactive dissemination records show that during that period, they paid a little more than $ 1.04 million.
The contract established milestones for Burnett, including the presentation of its new proposed model for the independent office and then helping to create the necessary policies and legislation to establish it. In the last months of his contract, he was supposed to give advice for the office implementation process.
Asagwara said that after receiving Burnett’s report in December, he did no more work for the Department of Health. He was paid more than $ 340,000 from December to the end of his contract.
The dissolution of protection for people in the care office seems to be stagnant after the change of government in 2023. Manitoba Minister of Health, Uzoma Asagwara, said they chose to address immediate concerns instead of trusting a new office.
The contract indicates that there was a fine for canceling the contract early, but the amount of the fine was drafted in the disclosure.
When asked why the Health Department did not use it to do more work after the report was completed, the minister said he chose the action pending the recommendations.
“They [the PCs] He chose to invest in a report and give this mandate to establish an office, instead of addressing the concerns that were right in front of them, “said Asagwara.
The NDP government eliminated the request for the existing office, hired more researchers in the office and established an independent elder defender, said Asagwara. The defender’s office will identify and evaluate the problems facing older people, and will be created This fall Once the legislation is proclaimed.
You will not have research powers. A spokesman for the Minister of Health said they are open to strengthen the law of defenders of older adults in the future.
The Minister of Health also ordered that all investigations be completed within 179 days.
The NDP also proclaimed legislation, introduced under the conservatives, who clarified and expanded the definition of abuse under the law that governs the Protection Office.
‘Worrying and frightening’: PC critic
Trevor King, the elderly and criticism of long -term attention for the progressive conservatives of the opposition, said the NDP is wasting money sitting in the Burnett report.
“It is quite worrying and frightening … that a large number of dollars of taxpayers were spent in this individual to give recommendations, and nothing is being done with that,” he said.
“We are using taxpayers money to use someone to do something, so we should have given something to do.”
Canage Watts also says that the creation of a defender of older adults is the step forward, but believes that there should be together with an independent investigation office.
“They are separate structures that are complementary, but unless you really have some kind of mandate to investigate and force answers, things will remain as they have been,” he said.
According to its 2024-25 annual reportThe Protection Office received 2,354 reports of possible abuse or negligence. Of these, 69 were elevated to an investigation, which means that the office found reasonable reasons to believe that a person under care was abused or careless.
Of those 69 cases, 14 were considered founded and 16 were considered unfounded.
The other 39 were still open at the end of the fiscal year. A spokesman for the Minister of Health said as of this month that there were 68 active investigations.
The annual report says that 10 patients were physically abused, two were careless, a person was sexually abused and there was a case in which the person faced financial abuse.
The General Auditor made 12 recommendations in his report on the office, including the result of his public investigations, with a brief summary, including the position of the alleged abuser, the accusation, the type of abuse and the conclusion.
These summaries were not included in the last annual office of the office, but will be in report 2025-26, according to the spokesman for the Minister of Health. The other recommendations of the General Auditor have been addressed, he said.
Burnett’s report will be published at the end of September or early October, said Asagwara.
