Confidential hotline for whistleblowers pondered

Saskatoon city hall is looking to set up a hotline for employees to report suspected waste or wrongdoing confidentially and without fear of reprisal.

The hotline would be a component of the city’s broader whistleblower policy, which is expected to go before city council in the coming months and come into force sometime early next year.

Public tender documents indicate city hall is looking for information about the best way to establish and administer a hotline, likely through a yet-to-be-identified outside company.

That includes details about the components of a “highly effective” whistleblower program, what city administration’s role should be in running it, how to make employees aware of it and the estimated cost.

A tentative timeline included in the document suggests the program will be available to civic employees in the first quarter of 2021, and expanded to include suppliers and the public at a later date.

While Coun. Randy Donauer first proposed a formal shield for employees who expose wrongdoing more than three years ago, Saskatoon has been slower than some other Canadian cities to implement one.

Victoria, B.C. adopted its program in 2013; Calgary and Edmonton followed suit four years later. Winnipeg and Toronto also have whistleblower policies in place.

The City of Regina spent a year developing its policy, which was approved in March.

A city spokeswoman said employee training was set to begin this spring but delayed until autumn by the pandemic.

Saskatoon’s policy is expected to come under the purview of its new internal auditor’s office.

Plans to hire the city’s first internal auditor this spring were also delayed by the new coronavirus.

The tender documents state the $472,000-a-year office, which city officials expect will provide more work for less money than hiring outside auditors, will now be established in the first quarter of next year.

The City of Saskatoon declined to comment, citing its practice of not commenting on requests for information, proposals or qualifications or other industry inquiries to avoid biasing the process.

The city’s policy is expected to apply to the civic corporation’s roughly 3,650 permanent, temporary and seasonal employees — but it won’t apply to hundreds of other people paid with municipal tax dollars.

A Saskatoon Public Library spokeswoman said in an email that a whistleblower policy has been identified as a “needed policy” but work on it has not started.

The city police service also does not have an official whistleblower policy, nor does it have plans to create one. A police spokeswoman said there are already mechanisms to report internally through professional standards or the Public Complaints Commission.

A governance review, which includes a possible mechanism for uniform policies, is underway for the city’s three controlled corporations: Sasktel Centre, TCU Place and the Remai Modern art gallery.