Medicine Hat's next council will vote on changes to the city whistleblower policy following a motion brought forward by Coun. Shila Sharps seeking enhancements. Staffers will now review the requested changes and provide a future council a motion for adoption.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Coun. Shila Sharps is seeking to make enhancements to current systems that allow anonymous third-party reporting and add mechanisms to increase public confidence at city hall.
Sharps is hoping Medicine Hat will follow in the footsteps of other Alberta municipalities like Calgary, Edmonton and Grande Prairie which have adopted whistleblower systems that extend eligibility beyond employees to contractors and, in many cases, the public.
“Introduce an independent third-party reporting mechanism that allows for anonymous disclosure,” said Sharps. “Strengthen anti-retaliation protection for whistleblowers, provide annual anonymized reporting on the number and types of disclosures received and outcomes to the new council.”
Changes to the current whistleblower policy which will be seeking approval by council by the end of 2025 include:
Extend eligibility for whistleblower reporting to include contractors, suppliers and members of the public.
Introduce an independent, third-party reporting mechanism that allows for anonymous disclosures.
Strengthen anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers.
Provide annual, anonymized reporting on the number and types of disclosures received and outcomes to council.
These changes have been identified as “best practices” in municipal government and aim to improve transparency, accountability and protection for people who disclose wrongdoings.
Currently the city’s whistleblower policy only applies for city staffers and volunteers, but Sharps wants to make sure anyone can report, including anonymous sources as well as members of council.
“So I would like to see third-party reporting mechanisms and we adopt an independent hotline portal to receive and triage the disclosures,” said Sharps. “I do not believe this should be internal to HR or the city manager, I think we need to expand the scope to staff, contractors and the public and make sure that people … feel safe in this environment and don’t have retaliation provisions.”
Sharps says potential issues brought up by whistleblowers could be addressed early on, preventing those issues from ballooning into larger problems in the future.
“I want to make sure that we nip these problems in the bud,” said Sharps. “It’s clear that if you have a good whistleblower (policy), you can usually handle a lot of the problems that are coming that end up being a really big deal six months later, if people feel like they can come forward.”
Council unanimously passed the motion to have staff review changes and present them to the next council before the end of 2025.
