The Committee recommends that:

RECOMMENDATION 1

The Government of Canada amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act in order to:

A. Clarify and broaden the definition of the term “wrongdoing;”

B. Broaden the definition of the term “supervisor” to enable public servants to make a protected disclosure to any manager, within their organization;

C. Ensure the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner conducts investigations of disclosures of wrongdoing and reprisal complaints in a timelier manner;

D. Repeal the requirement of “good faith” for making a protected disclosure of wrongdoing(s);

E. Ensure that a whistleblower disclosing wrongdoing is protected as long as the whistleblower has cause to reasonably believe that what he or she is disclosing is true;

F. Expand the Auditor General of Canada’s mandate to receive disclosures of wrongdoing from the public and reprisal complaints concerning the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, with all the related powers and duties of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner;

G. Provide the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner and the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, in the course of an investigation, additional investigative powers, including the authority to demand and use evidence obtained outside the public sector, that are enforceable through a Federal Court order;

H. Explicitly mandate managers and supervisors in federal departments and agencies with a duty to protect and support employees who made a disclosure, any person that helped  him or her as well as witnesses and people mistaken as whistleblowers;

I. Ensure that the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner must exercise his authority to intervene in cases being considered by other bodies in accordance with the ruling of 17 January 2017 of the Federal Court of Appeal in the case Therrien v. Attorney General of Canada (2017 FCA 14);

J. Provide the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner with the authority to commence an investigation of wrongdoing that is not being addressed in existing processes based on evidence obtained in the course of a reprisal investigation;

K. Allow all persons involved in aspects of government operations, including contractors and former public servants, to make protected disclosures of wrongdoing to the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner; and

L. Allow the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner to request corrective actions to address wrongdoing uncovered by investigations.

RECOMMENDATION 2

The Government of Canada provide regular education and training on the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to ensure that employees are aware of the disclosure channels and resources available to them as well as their rights.

RECOMMENDATION 3

The Government of Canada give the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner the mandate to protect whistleblowers and the authority to intervene in mishandled cases as well as to oversee, evaluate and introduce improvements to the internal disclosure process of the federal public service to address conflicts of interest.

RECOMMENDATION 4

The Government of Canada appoint the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner following an open, transparent and merit-based selection process.

RECOMMENDATION 5

The Government of Canada explicitly mandate managers and supervisors in federal departments and agencies with a duty to protect and support employees who made a disclosure, any person that helped him or her as well as witnesses and people mistaken as whistleblowers.

RECOMMENDATION 6

The Government of Canada amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act in order to:

A. Ensure that protection under the Act extends to any person that helped a whistleblower as well any witness and person mistaken as a whistleblower;

B. Clarify and expand the definition of the term “reprisal” to include all acts and omissions which are inconsistent with the duty to protect and support;

C. Provide remedies to whistleblowers to ensure he or she is made whole, giving due consideration to his or her employment status prior to the disclosure, and that, irrespective of this, corrective measures can still be ordered against a wrongdoer;

D. Provide the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner and the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal with the authority to award reasonable legal costs as to encourage whistleblowers to come forward;

E. Provide the Public Servants Disclosure Tribunal with the right to rule to sanction individuals who take reprisals or any form of detrimental action against an employee having made a disclosure, any person that helped him or her as well as witnesses and people mistaken as whistleblowers;

F. Extend the deadline provided to file a reprisal complaint to 12 months;

G. Enable whistleblowers who suffer reprisals, including federal contractors, to directly address the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal without having their case first validated by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner and provide the Tribunal with more resources so that it can rule on complaints in a timelier manner;

H. Remove the requirement that investigations by the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner cannot overlap with investigations under other laws; and

I. Reverse the burden of proof so that the employer must demonstrate that no reprisals were taken against the whistleblower for having made a disclosure.

RECOMMENDATION 7

The Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner be responsible, in co-operation with federal departments and agencies, to raise awareness among, to communicate with and to provide training to federal employees regarding the disclosure process, their rights and whistleblower protection, and that organizations not covered by the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act do the same for their employees.

RECOMMENDATION 8

The Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer of the public service conduct more research, in alignment with leading international research for comparison purposes, such as that of Australia, into the best practices to change the existing culture of disclosure and the fear of reprisals in the public service, and to identify the weaknesses in the protection and disclosure systems to be addressed in each federal department and agency.

RECOMMENDATION 9

The Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer of the public service regularly assess the culture of disclosure and the fear of reprisals in the public service by notably recording the frequency of perceived wrongdoing and reported wrongdoing, and evaluating the level of confidence of public servants in the protection and effectiveness of the internal reporting mechanism, and publicly release the information collected and the findings.

RECOMMENDATION 10

The Government of Canada amend the confidentiality provisions of the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act in order to ensure information obtained in the course of investigations by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner may be used by federal departments and agencies, by the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal and by the Federal Court, to avoid the duplication of efforts, but without compromising the confidentiality of whistleblowers and witnesses.

RECOMMENDATION 11

The Government of Canada amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act in order to include provisions that respect and maintain the confidentiality of witnesses, including the whistleblower, unless consent to disclose one’s identity has been expressively given in writing by the person concerned.

RECOMMENDATION 12

The President of the Treasury Board initiate an independent review of the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act no later than five years after the coming into force of the amendments recommended.

RECOMMENDATION 13

The preamble of the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act be amended to reflect more accurately the objectives of the Act, notably the protection from reprisals of individuals participating in a public interest disclosure of wrongdoing.

RECOMMENDATION 14

The Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner draft, in collaboration with the Internal Disclosure Working Group, and implement a proactive framework for regular, transparent and relevant reporting and accountability at each stage of the internal disclosure process to ensure established service standards are respected.

RECOMMENDATION 15

The Government of Canada amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to include in the annual report issued by the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner more meaningful statistics concerning all the departments and agencies covered by the Act, including:

A. The synopses of significant cases;

B. The levels of disclosure and reprisal activity, and backlogs;

C. The number of disclosures made by category of wrongdoing;

D. The duration of all open cases and cases closed during the fiscal year;

E. The distribution of cases by region across the organization; and

F. The distribution of cases by federal departments and agencies.