MLAs make one last bid for inquiry into travel-nurse contracts
Committee asks auditor general to use inquiry powers in new probe of costly agreements
The New Brunswick Legislature's public accounts committee is making one last push to ensure a public inquiry is held into expensive travel-nurse contracts.
MLAs from all three parties voted Tuesday to ask Auditor General Paul Martin to probe further into the agreement, using powers under the Inquiries Act to summon witnesses and compel them to produce documents.
"We have seen an erosion of accountability to the taxpayer, and that's my biggest concern here," Progressive Conservative MLA Dorothy Shephard said in an interview after Tuesday's meeting of the committee.
Shephard, a former minister of health and social development, introduced the motion, which the committee passed without any objections.
It asks Martin to use the powers he has to act as a commissioner of inquiry, which would give him more authority to demand co-operation from witnesses than in his regular audits.
In a statement, Martin said he and his staff hold the public accounts committee "in high regard and support their mission to scrutinize public expenditures.
"Our office will be taking time to carefully review this motion and decide on next steps."
Martin's performance audit of the travel-nurse contracts was released last month and found a lack of due diligence in some of the $173 million worth of contracts with private companies providing travel nurses to the province.
That prompted the committee to hold three days of hearings in June where Dr. France Desrosiers, CEO of the Vitalité Health Network, said a deputy minister gave her "the green light" to sign the contracts despite warnings they could cost tens of millions of dollars.
Desrosiers also said her team offered the province other options that would have cost less, an assertion Premier Blaine Higgs disputed.
In June, at what was supposed to be its last meeting before this fall's election, the committee asked the government to call an inquiry but that was rejected.
"You're going to have two versions of what happened and people may still not be convinced that their version isn't the correct version," Health Minister Bruce Fitch said last month.
"Would it be a worthwhile effort?"
Shephard said at Tuesday's meeting that her main concern about the contracts is "the lack of engagement of elected officials, whose responsibility to the electorate is paramount."
Vitalité remains locked in a contract with Canadian Health Labs until February 2026, and the agreement can be automatically renewed if the company meets certain bilingual-service targets.
"Clearly, money is still being spent and cheques are still being written," Shephard said. "We have no assurances the problem will be fixed."
Opposition MLAs on the committee supported her motion for an inquiry.
"This is the best tool we can have," said Liberal MLA Benoit Bourque, another former health minister.
Green Leader David Coon said the last time an auditor general used inquiry powers, it led to a "great report" on the Atcon loan fiasco, which he said prompted changes in process and in the political culture.
"As a result, we've never seen such a situation occur again in this province," he said.
Earlier this month, the New Brunswick Nurses Union also asked for an inquiry.
Shephard and two of the other three PC MLAs at Tuesday's meeting are not re-offering in the election.
Shephard told the committee she has seen an erosion of respect for the legislature's oversight role and a centralization of decision-making during her 14 years as an MLA.
Under the New Brunswick Legislature's standing rules, the public accounts committee doesn't have the power to call witnesses unless it gets the approval of the full legislature.
Shephard said she would like to see that change, but for now, the committee can only tell the auditor general that it wants him to "go as far as he needs to" to get answers.
"This is the power we have to go further into the questioning of people who respond to the public accounts committee," she said.
An inquiry would be unlikely to take place or produce a report before the provincial election scheduled for Oct. 21.
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