Mazza FIRED. Orgne in receivership

[EA757]

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/21/wh ... e-at-ornge

Whistleblower pays the price at Ornge

By Christina Blizzard ,QMI Agency

First posted: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 08:22 PM EDT |
Updated: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 08:41 PM EDT



Trevor Kidd blew the whistle on mismanagement at the Ornge air ambulance scandal.

Now he says he’s paying the price.

The Thunder Bay paramedic was transferred to Windsor in 2008 to work at what was supposed to be one of 10 new land bases the provincial government required Ornge to open.

Kidd, 35, sold his Thunder Bay house, bought one in Windsor and moved in at the end of October, 2008.

“The Friday I moved into my house, they sent an e-mail to everyone asking them to come to a meeting,” he told me.

They were told Ornge wasn’t opening the Windsor base and only opening two others half time.

He was given the option of moving to another base, but told his bosses he’d prefer to take six months’ severance, stay in Windsor and find a job there.

He was told since the land base hadn’t opened, technically he was still working out of Thunder Bay, so there’d be no severance.

His main concern are the costs he incurred selling and buying houses.

“Ornge CEO Chris Mazza and the management team said everyone would be entitled to moving expenses and for those of us who’d bought houses, to sell the houses and submit expenses,” he told me.

“They couldn’t promise they’d cover everything, but they’d see what they could do.”

His union, CAW, told him they’d also fight for him.

At that point, Kidd resigned from Ornge and went back to school. He took Ornge to court and the case ended up at the OLRB. It was dismissed last summer because they said he’d missed the deadline or filing, even though he wasn’t aware of any deadlines. He was told to pursue his claim through the courts.

He’s asking for $42,000 in realty fees, land transfer taxes, legal fees and other costs associated with the move.

Kidd says he’s all but given up on the legal process.

He’s going back to school and wants to get out of the paramedic business and go into teaching.

Last year, he appeared before a Queen’s Park committee probing the Ornge scandal. He wonders if it’s just a coincidence that the OLRB dropped his case just days after his last appearance in 2012 — when a Liberal MPP demanded he name his sources.

Kidd told the committee he’d quit Ornge in disgust over safety issues after a girl in northwestern Ontario died because of staffing issues at the troubled air ambulance operation.

Tory critic Frank Klees says Kidd and his colleagues were punished for their honesty.

“He was a whistleblower on this and there’s no doubt in my mind that his providing that forthright testimony to us has affected the rest of his life,” Klees said.

He’s not the only whistleblower targeted. Another Thunder Bay paramedic was suspended, although he has since been reinstated.

“These paramedics were hired and they uprooted their families on the promise of these employment commitments that were made,” Klees told me.

“Like many other things, Chris Mazza and his management team decided that their schemes were more important than delivering the core services that Ornge was mandated to deliver,” he said.

Klees said the reason these land-based bases couldn’t open — even though they were desperately needed and even though the province was funding them — was because Ornge was diverting its resources to a web of other enterprises.

Last year, in a scathing report, provincial auditor general Jim McCarter slammed Ornge over the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted in an attempt to privatize the air ambulance system.

Kidd and others who raised the alarm deserve better.

The worst thing about dropping the court case, Kidd says, is that no one has been held accountable in any meaningful way for what happened at Ornge.

We can all wring our hands and tut-tut, but no one has been punished.

Except, apparently, the whistleblowers.

[AOW]

[Rudy]

I can tell the minister that that patient died. I can also tell the minister that it is alleged that the reason the Air Bravo satellite telephone was not working was because Air Bravo had not paid its bills. I can also tell the minister that the CEO of Air Bravo admitted under testimony last week that the company was having serious financial difficulties.

I can also tell the minister that Ornge failed, when issuing a contract to Air Bravo, to conduct any financial inspection of that company to determine whether it had the capacity to deliver.

That's pretty awful. Why can't they transfer the patient without making a phone call first? It was obviously a life and death situation. The paramedics on scene could have confirmed that.

[LV2FLY2]

"Mike Duffy, Than EMS"
Waz next?
Get used to it folks

[lownslow]

Why can't they transfer the patient without making a phone call first? It was obviously a life and death situation.

I believe a requirement is for the medics to always be able to speak to a doctor, whether it's ORNGE's on staff doctor or otherwise. Since Pikangikum is an hour and change from Thunder Bay, had they taken the patient on board Air Bravo the medics would have been in a lose-lose situation. If the patient died it would have been on them and if they had taken unauthorized measures to save the patient I suspect there still would have been harsh disciplinary action taken.

LnS.

[ipilot54]

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013 ... _nuts.html

[ipilot54]

Ornge Summary Report

The report almost made it out...from Frank Klees today:

Last Sitting Day of the 40th Parliament

Thursday, May 1st turned out to be one of the most memorable of my 19 years as a Member of Provincial Parliament.

When the bells rang to summon MPPs to the opening of the sessional day, little did we know that this would be the last day on which MPPs would conduct the business of the legislature of the 40th Parliament.

Implications to the Summary Report on the Ornge Air Ambulance Scandal

Why? Because as the PC lead on the committee investigating the Ornge Air Ambulance scandal, I along with the other members of the committee signed off on a Summary Report that was more than two years in the making. It identifies 95 specific concerns that relate to the lack of oversight and mismanagement on the part of senior Ministry of Health officials and the failure on the part of members on the Ornge Board of Directors to exercise their fiduciary responsibilities.

The report also makes specific recommendations to pursue recovery of public funds from Ornge executives and Board members and to implement key changes to the service delivery model of Ornge and put in place proper oversight mechanisms in the Ministry of Health.

The report was scheduled to be tabled on Monday, May 5th and given the possibility that the Premier would dissolve the legislature before that date, I was concerned that the work of the committee would never see the light of day.

I signalled that concern to the Premier during Question Period on the morning of May 1st. I will leave it to you to conclude why she refused to ensure that the report would be made public, regardless of the timing of the election. By 2:30 p.m. the next day, the Premier dissolved the 40th Parliament. The report will not be tabled.

I have a copy of the Ornge Summary Report. I think the public deserve to know.

http://www.frankklees.com