Sudbury whistleblower protection questioned by some city councillors

Some Sudbury city councillors are lukewarm on the idea of formally protecting whistleblowers at city hall.

The city has been formallyworking towards drawing up a whistleblower policy since September, although the idea has been kicked around since past auditor general and current Mayor Brian Bigger recommended it in 2012.

But at a Tuesday audit committee meeting,several of the newly elected councillors questioned whether it's needed.

City councillor Robert Kirwansaid hefears a formal complaint processwill just de-motivate city workers and make those currently doing a good jobless efficient.

"I know when I was growing up we didn't call thiswhistleblowingor refereeing, we had all kinds of other names for it," he said.

City councillorMichael Vagnini said, from his past experience in the private sector, whistleblowing policies were tried and "they've failed."

"I have an issue with this wholewhistleblowingprogram," he said.

But others, including MayorBigger argued that just having a complaint process for citizens and employees is valuable.

"The objective here is to provide an assurance to a complainant that what they say is being looked at, and a fact that the system is working."

Interim auditor general Vasu Balakrishnan saiddata mining the information filed through whistleblower claims can also help find other problems at the city.

"If the majority of them arefrivolousor insignificant or coming from the same source or about the same department, it might be an indicator of some other issue."

City staff are currently working on a draft whistleblower policy, including how complaints would be handled and how much it would cost.

It's expected to come before council for a vote in the coming months.