The Manitoba government has overhauled its Protection for Persons in Care office after a scathing report found it had dismissed allegations of sexual assault and abuse at personal-care homes.
Additional staff have been hired for investigations and the office has mandated specialized training for employees after the July 2023 audit identified systemic issues within the office designed to protect vulnerable people in care.
Deputy minister of health Scott Sinclair said Wednesday the public service made the changes following the auditor general’s 12 recommendations outlined in the last year’s report.
“The PPCO fully addressed its backlog and introduced legislative administrative measures that will ensure full administration of Protection for Persons in Care Act, improve resident and patient safety and restore public trust,” Sinclair told the province’s standing committee on public accounts at a meeting on the audit.
Auditor general Tyson Shtykalo said in the 41-page report that the processes used by the PPCO were “flawed and failed to reach reasonable conclusions.”
The investigation of the PPCO covered a span of six years (2015-21) and allegations of residents being sexually assaulted, kicked in the shin, hit in the face with a remote control, pinned down and verbally abused. In each case, the office deemed the allegations as “unfounded.”
“I am deeply concerned by our findings and recognize the painful experiences the victims and families went through,” Shtykalo said in the report.
After the former Tory government learned of the concerns in the report, it vowed to disband the office and replace it with an independent body. It also changed the definitions of abuse in the act to broaden the scope of complaint investigations.
The NDP government has maintained the office and instead implemented the recommendations, which include producing regular reports on complaints and investigations forwarded to the office. The last annual report to be released by the PPCO was in 2016.
Dianna Klassen, whose father’s allegations of abuse to the PPCO didn’t result in criminal charges, said the changes come too little, too late for families such as hers.
Klassen’s father, David Middleton, lived at Oakview Place on Ness Avenue for four years until his death in 2022 and was allegedly abused during his stay there.
“(Do the changes) actually have some teeth, or is it just more words on a piece of paper?” she said.
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told the committee it was the province’s priority to address the recommendations in Shtykalo’s report when it formed government after the October 2023 election.
“It was a difficult report that really deserves our full attention and commitment to making sure that we don’t allow the missteps and the mistakes of the past that hurt families and seniors to be repeated,” Asagwara said.
Following the report the Tory government hired lawyer Kimberley Gilson to re-examine the investigations by the agency to see if any needed to be reopened.
A provincial spokesperson confirmed to the Free Press Gilson had concluded her investigation and none of the complaints warranted a second look.
Among the changes to PPCO operations, investigations into complaints of abuse must now be completed within 179 days, after the report found some complaints took more than five years to settle.
Klassen says in addition to the changes to the PPCO and its related legislation, more should be done to inform incoming care-home residents of their options, should abuse occur.
“It should be part of the education process to say to them, ‘You have recourse if you feel that something’s not right,’” she said. “You’re putting an awful lot of trust into those people that they’re going to do their job. So if you have an issue, who do you go to? Are people going to know that?”
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole.
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