Watchdog won't throw us under the bus: Vitalité

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Auditor general Paul Martin’s investigation into controversial travel nurse contracts won’t find any wrongdoing or misspending, say two members of Vitalité Health Network’s board of directors.

In a recent interview with Brunswick News, Vitalité’s board chair Tom Soucy and vice-chair Réjean Després said they’re confident Martin’s probe will erase any perception that the network did anything wrong by signing the contracts, which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

The contracts were signed in 2022, when the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) were facing major staffing shortages because of the pandemic. Not doing anything would have led to the closure of some health facilities, the government, Vitalité, and Horizon Health Network have previously said. 

Several other provinces, including Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, signed similar contracts. In some instances, the companies providing the nurses are being paid more than $300 an hour per nurse.

When the contracts were signed, a few months after Premier Blaine Higgs fired Horizon and Vitalité’s elected boards, the province had assigned trustees to oversee both RHAs. The current boards, made up of appointees picked by the government, weren’t in place.

“I expect his findings to be very supportive of how Vitalité addressed the problem,” Després said, adding that the network has already met with Martin and his team, and intends to co-operate and collaborate.

The network has consistently reported to the government when it’s gone over budget for any reason, including the travel nurse contracts “for over a year,” Després said. He noted that Vitalité’s former trustee Gérald Richard has said the same thing.

By law, the RHAs can’t go over budget, so when they’re about to, they must get approval from the province.

“We’ve been asking for a budget adjustment until the end of (the travel nurse) contracts, but instead we have to, every quarter, report a deficit and ‘hope’ that the government will agree to fund it,” Després said.

“I don’t think the health of New Brunswickers should be put in that type of political … situation. And I doubt that the government would refuse to fund it.”

Last fall, Health Minister Bruce Fitch sent Soucy and Després a letter asking Vitalité to “meet our budget for this year.” 

“The only solutions that we could provide would have been to reduce services, which both we the board, (Vitalité) and the government agreed was not a possibility,” Després said.

“So we’re all on the same page that there’s nothing we can do, but yet we carry this burden of a deficit that we feel should be resolved with the process that is already in place – asking the government to make an amendment to our budget for an outstanding, out-of-our-control excess cost.”

“I don’t think the auditor general is going to find anything,” Soucy added. “It was the situation. I don’t think that anyone is going to be thrown under the bus. I really don’t.”

Soucy said when he and Després were appointed to the board last year and found out about the travel nurse contracts, they “looked at each other.”

“Did we like the situation? No, we did not like the situation. We appreciated that it was a hard time for (Vitalité). And we said to ourselves, had we been in our positions at (the time the contracts were signed), probably the decision would have been different. We don’t know. But the result probably would have been roughly the same. 

“We needed the staff. We can’t let people die. It is our job to support the New Brunswick population. Would it have been this particular contract? We don’t know. It’s easy to have 20/20 (vision) in hindsight.

“Would there have been a contract? Absolutely.”

When Martin’s investigation was announced, his office issued a statement saying that Vitalité, Horizon, the Department of Health and the Department of Social Development will all be audited.

“The audit will consider issues related to procurement, oversight, internal controls and overall value for money,” the statement read.

“This work is very important in keeping government departments and agencies accountable for the spending of New Brunswick tax dollars,” Martin said in the statement.

Told of Soucy and Després’ comments, and their confidence that Martin won’t find any wrongdoing, Fitch said he’ll wait for the auditor general’s report, which he’s “looking forward to.”

“And if there’s any recommendations from that, we’ll certainly review them,” Fitch said.