ManitobaThe commissioner hired to create a new office to better protect seniors in care says the only option to restore public confidence and create impartiality is to make it independent from the government, according to a report released Friday. Province had been sitting on recommendations from commissioner tasked with examining overhaulKristin Annable · CBC News · Posted: Sep 26, 2025 9:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoManitoba says it will create a working group that will help implement ‘the spirit’ of recommendations from a commissioner tasked with coming up with an independent office to better protect seniors in care. But the province has made no firm commitments it will ever become a reality. (CBC)The commissioner hired to create a new office to better protect seniors in care says the only option to restore public confidence and create impartiality is to make it independent from the government, according to a report released Friday. Former judge William Burnett was tasked in 2023 to come up with a plan to dissolve the Protection for Persons in Care Office (PPCO) and create a new independent office with investigatory powers. This was after a scathing report from Manitoba’s auditor general in July 2023 revealed a litany of problems at the PPCO.The PPCO, which is within the province’s health department, is responsible for receiving and investigating reports of abuse or neglect of people in personal care homes or hospitals.Burnett’s 64-page report was released late Friday afternoon, but with no firm commitment from the NDP government, questions remain as to whether an independent office will ever become a reality. In 2023, the auditor found serious allegations of abuse were being dismissed and complaints were taking upwards of three years to be addressed by the provincial office. Findings of wrongdoing were sometimes overturned by a director in the office, the report said.Burnett was hired by the Progressive Conservative government at the time and paid over $1 million between Sept.1, 2023 and the end of his contract in August 2024. He submitted his report in December 2024 and, as CBC reported earlier this month, the province sat on it for months before releasing it on Friday. A government press release Friday afternoon does not say the province will create a new office, but instead that it will create a working group that will collaborate with the current PPCO and the new seniors advocate to implement “the spirit” of the recommendations.Burnett’s report recommended that all of the PPCO’s investigatory powers would be transferred to the new office, including access to records at health facilities. It would also take on new powers, including the ability to conduct examinations under oath, compel the production of documents, obtain subpoenas and make applications to court for assistance. Burnett said over the course of his work, significant changes occurred at the PPCO, including eliminating the backlog and completing investigations within 180 days. But he said maintaining that office is not the best way forward, given its long history of problems dating back more than 13 years. The only option to “quickly restore public confidence” and create the proper level of “impartiality, independence and accountability” is through this new office, Burnett said in his report.Instead, the NDP government says it will be moving forward with establishing an independent seniors’ advocate. The advocate’s office will identify and evaluate issues faced by seniors, but it will not have investigatory powers.Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in a statement Friday the working group will decide on the best way to move forward, including potentially strengthening the Seniors Advocate Act, though they did not say how.Burnett made 23 recommendations in the report, including finding a person guilty of an offence, with fines of up to $50,000 or imprisonment, if they obstruct an investigation or make a false report.Lakeside MLA Trevor King, the PCs’ seniors critic, said in an emailed statement Friday his party had pushed for the establishment of an independent PPCO office “to protect some of our most vulnerable citizens” and added he was disappointed with the NDP government’s plan to create an advocate with no investigatory powers.”This will leave Manitoba seniors in care vulnerable to further abuse,” King said in the statement.ABOUT THE AUTHORKristin Annable is a member of CBC’s investigative unit based in Winnipeg. She has won several RTDNAs for her work, including a national RTDNA for her investigation into deaths in police custody. She can be reached at kristin.annable@cbc.ca.
Independent Manitoba seniors’ protection office only way to quickly restore public confidence: report
