(Quebec) Sonia LeBel wants to correct the flaws in the law aimed at protecting whistleblowers, a legacy of the Charbonneau commission. Civil service bosses will no longer be able to handle denunciations from members of their staff themselves. She plans to entrust all processing of disclosures to the Public Protector.
It’s the start of the parliamentary term in Quebec when we find the President of the Treasury Board in her offices in the Jean-Talon building. Seemingly austere, the building nicknamed the “bunker” offers a luminous view of Old Quebec from the inside.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Meeting with Deputy Minister Patrick Dubé
“What’s on the menu?” », Launches the minister dynamically, as she sits down at the table in a cabinet meeting room. His deputy minister Patrick Dubé opens his laptop and begins a long list that he calls “the back-to-school kit”.
Sonia LeBel’s office offered The Press privileged access as part of the resumption of parliamentary work on September 12. The fall of the elected CAQ promises to be “hot”, to use the words of Prime Minister François Legault.
This is leading for the second time the renegotiation of the collective agreements of some 600,000 state employees and the scenario of an unlimited general strike in the public sector seems to be coming to fruition. Members of the Common Union Front (FTQ, CSN, CSQ and APTS) will vote on mandates to this effect this week and until mid-October.
But the one who is also responsible for Government Administration has several irons in the fire. At the top of the pile: she wants to reopen the Act to facilitate the disclosure of wrongdoing regarding public bodiesadopted in 2017 under the liberal government of Philippe Couillard to protect whistleblowers.
” The law [actuelle] was not bad in itself,” she emphasizes while discussing with the secretary of the Treasury Board. The minister then expressed her intention to “take” the process of disclosing wrongdoing out of the “public administration” and entrust it to an “independent” third party such as the Public Protector.
“We are on schedule,” Mr. Dubé assures him.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
In interview with journalist Fanny Lévesque
A “one-stop shop” for denunciations
In interview at The Pressthe minister supports her thinking a little more.
“Currently, the process is internal, that is to say you have a whistleblower manager who is designated, but what we got as feedback is that the whistleblowers were not always comfortable going to see a colleague from [ressources humaines] or a frame to denounce another frame, for example,” she illustrates.
The option on the table is that the processing of disclosures falls exclusively to the Public Protector. This is also the main recommendation of the report on the implementation of the law, signed by the Secretariat of the Treasury Board in 2020.
This report also demonstrated that in several organizations, bosses themselves handle denunciations from whistleblowers, which perpetuates silence and compromises the independence and impartiality of the processing of files.
The Coalition Avenir Québec government promised in 2018 to expand protection for whistleblowers. Before acting, the Legault government said it wanted a parliamentary commission to look into the conclusions of the report.
The pandemic forced its postponement, so that the consultations finally took place at the end of the session, in June.
“We intend to follow up on the consultations with a bill. This was not mandatory, but I am keen to give whistleblowers as much protection as possible. It’s part of my DNA,” says the former chief prosecutor of the Charbonneau commission.
“What emerges a lot from the consultations, beyond our proposals, is the need for the whistleblower to be supported,” she adds.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Sonia LeBel, Minister responsible for Government Administration and President of the Treasury Board
Quebec is therefore considering the creation of a “one-stop shop” to collect disclosures. This is what the Public Protector is calling for to support whistleblowers after the denunciation and to guide them in the event of internal reprisals.
For the moment, a whistleblower can contact the Public Protector directly to report a situation or “to the person responsible for monitoring disclosures” of each ministry. The latter can then carry out checks within the organization itself.
It is this power that poses a problem in certain situations, noted Citizen Ombudsman Marc-André Dowd in June.
Indeed, it is reminiscent of the case of agronomist Louis Robert who was fired from MAPAQ in 2019 for having denounced to the media the influence of the private sector in the management of the Grain Research Center, an organization largely subsidized by public funds.
Mr. Robert had raised the alarm within MAPAQ in 2017 by speaking to the official responsible for handling the disclosure of wrongdoing. However, the latter did not follow up on its efforts, in addition to disclosing the identity of Mr. Robert.
For me, trust in the process is essential. From trust comes protection, because no protection, no trust.
Sonia LeBel, President of the Treasury Board
According to her, the current denunciation process is “too internal” and still “unknown”.
The minister did not want to indicate whether her bill will strengthen the protection of a whistleblower who speaks to the media. Right now, it can be protected under certain conditions if the situation “presents a serious risk to a person’s health and safety.”
In the past, Québec solidaire and the Parti Québécois have presented bills to correct the law’s shortcomings, such as extending it to more public bodies and allowing denunciation in the media. These bills were never called by the government.
Sonia LeBel’s major projects
Debunking the Treasury myths
Sonia LeBel welcomes us to the former Council of Ministers room where the Treasury Board committee, nicknamed the “flying saucer”, now meets. Mme LeBel sees it more as the government’s “control tower”. “Here, we see everything go by,” she emphasizes. She wants to debunk certain myths. “It’s not true that things are blocked at the Treasury,” she insists. “It’s not my role to say no, I haven’t said no to anything formally since I’ve been here. My role is to ensure […] that public funds are best spent and […] have the maximum impact for the citizen. »
Renegotiation of collective agreements
The pressure is increasing on Sonia LeBel while the scenario of an unlimited general strike seems to be coming to fruition. With her close guard, the elected official is also preparing for questions from her opposition adversaries. The day before, the president of the FTQ, Magali Picard, accused her of putting women at a disadvantage with her employer offers. “I don’t accept that one,” replies Mme LeBel. In an interview, she maintains the hard line: “I will not touch the salary parameters until I have an opening on the flexibility that I need [dans l’organisation du travail] “. Quebec’s salary offer is 11.5% over five years, the union is asking for increases of 20% over three years.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Minister LeBel surrounded by her advisors during a preparatory meeting for question period, on the day of the start of the parliamentary term in Quebec, on September 12
Modernization of the Professional Code
In May, Minister LeBel launched “a project to streamline and modernize” the Professional Code. Its intention is to give the necessary powers to the Office of Professions so that “it can fully fulfill its role as protector” of the public and offer professional orders “greater regulatory flexibility”. “I want to be able to identify quick wins with them. Are there any legislative changes I can make to allow them to be more agile in their role? », she illustrates. Mme LeBel gives the example of restricted practice permits issued to retired nurses to allow them to vaccinate. Consultations are planned for this fall.
Making the public service attractive
Other file. Sonia LeBel, who is responsible for the public service, must submit the new 2023-2028 human resources management strategy this fall. “The challenge is attracting labor into the public service. We must upgrade the public service and create attractive work environments,” she argued during her meeting with her deputy minister. The loss of expertise in the public service has been deplored for years by unions. The next strategy must be “a lever” to respond to “the growing labor shortage”, we can read in the 2023-2024 Expenditure Budget. The development of the new strategy was launched in 2021.