A federal government investigator was suspended for leaking documents showing investigators had to meet quotas of $485,000 each year in recovering employment insurance benefits from unemployed claimants.
Sylvie Therrien was suspended without pay in May. Reports of the suspension came out in the last few days.
In an interview this week with Canada’s national public television broadcaster CBC, Therrien said: “It just was against my values… harassing claimants… trying to penalize them in order to save money for the government. We had quotas to meet,”
Media reports about the quotas surfaced in Februrary. At the time, the then Human Resources (HRSDC) Minister Diane Finley denied there were “quotas” opting for the word “performance objectives”.
RCI’s Wojtek Gwiazda spoke to Steve McCuaig, the National Executive Vice-President of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU) which represents SylvieTherrien.
More information:
CBC News – EI whistleblower suspended without pay (includes video and interview) – here
Minister Diane Finley in Commons Feb 26, 2013 on “performance objectives” – here
Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU) website – ceiu-seic.ca
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