There is no reason for taking any remedial action and the accusations being levelled against the Sun Country Health Region, its vice-president of finance and the provincial government are unfounded.
That was the explanation coming from Cal Tant, chief executive officer for Sun Country, following a press release issued by the New Democratic Party that questioned the hiring of Hal Schmidt as the vice-president of finance for the local health region.
Judy Junor, the health critic for the NDP, stated in the press release that Schmidt had been fired by a hospital board in Halifax for misrepresenting his qualifications, and that an audit taken of a hospital in New Westminster, B.C. where Schmidt had served as CEO, was required after his tenure there.
When asked if Schmidt was still employed by Sun Country, Tant stated that "Mr. Schmidt is still employed by us, there is absolutely no reason to terminate his employment. He has been completely above board about his credentials and readily admitted to making a mistake with regards to his Halifax employment."
Tant added that Schmidt had informed him that when he had applied for the financial job in Halifax he had placed the CA designation behind his name, indicating that he held a degree as a chartered accountant, when in fact, he did not.
"He told me he had the training, but had not completed the final examinations for certification. He did not misrepresent himself here. He was right up front about it, from the start."
Tant added that he was the one who vetted Schmidt's resume and followed up on references and recommended his hiring to the board of directors of the Sun Country Regional Health Authority and its chairwoman Sharon Bauche.
But Junor, in an interview with The Mercury on Monday afternoon, stated that in essence, Schmidt was hired by the Sask Party government since regional health boards are appointed boards and have become highly politicized bodies and therefore the blame for any missteps in hiring practices rested with them.
"Don McMorris (Health minister) appoints the board and Hal Schmidt is hired by the board and the Health minister, so I'm not stretching the bow too far here. They can't dodge the facts," Junor said.
Schmidt has been the head of the financial department at Sun Country for almost two years and his work and the work of his department has been audited by an independent auditor and the provincial auditor each year.
"He (Schmidt) provided me with disclosure about the Halifax mistake. There has never been any inconsistencies in his work or the work of that department. Mr. Schmidt left New Westminster because the government was closing the hospital," Tant said.
"Mr. Schmidt does not hold a chartered accountant designation despite what he presented on his resume in Halifax. This should have been a red flag when screening candidates for the position here in Saskatchewan," said Junor.
She added in the release, that it was in response to media reports out of Moosomin and Carlyle, that indicated Schmidt was fired by the Halifax board for the misrepresentation.
Tant said where some news organizations get their information would only be conjecture on his part but as far as Schmidt's performance was concerned, "it has been exemplary. His knowledge base is good and his financial and operational skills are excellent. We knew of his mistake regarding misrepresentation, that happened six years ago. In fact it came to the board's attention in March of 2005, but the references checked out fine."
Junor, in her interview on Monday, said that in the B.C. situation, "they ran out of money, they had to do a forensic audit."
The NDP health critic, when asked if some of the problem stemmed from the fact that regional health boards are now purely appointed bodies, said that "we've tried everything elected boards, blended boards where some were appointed and others elected and now we have 100 per cent appointed bodies. They can't dodge the facts, it's all political. At least when we were in government we tried to look at all sectors and balance representation on the boards and it doesn't appear to be that way now."
In the release, Junor added, "Either the hiring process was not as thorough or extensive as it needed to be to find a qualified candidate to oversee spending in the Sun Country Health Region or the government wilfully hired an individual it knew had such controversial practices and relationships in the past."
She said that Schmidt oversaw the operations of a hospital that "ran out of funds for patient care should be shocking news to the families living in Sun Country."
Junor had just recently been in Wawota after it was revealed by the Sun Country board that they were in the process of closing three long-term care beds as well as two respite beds in the local health centre.
A delegation from that community met with the board earlier this summer to ask them to reconsider the decision which, Tant said, they did, before re-announcing that they would be staying with the original decision to close the beds to implement a saving to balance the regional budget.
"They looked, discussed and decided not to change the decision," said Tant.
The Mercury's attempt to contact Schmidt directly was unsuccessful.
