Wildrose press for changes to Alberta's flawed fatality inquiry system

The Opposition Wildrose says the government of Premier Rachel Notley must immediately reform Alberta's fatality inquiry system, following a CBC News investigation that revealed the outdated system fails to prevent future deaths and wastes money in the process.

But Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley will only say that her ministry is undertaking another review of the legislation, despite the fact Alberta Justice conducted a detailed review two years ago. That review identified serious systemic problems and made recommendations to replace the antiquated system.

"We have done the legwork to get all of the recommendations (to fix the law)," Wildrose justice critic Scott Cyr said. "We just need a bill."

The details of the previous review are contained in an internal Alberta Justice document, obtained by CBC News. The document details the dysfunction within the province's fatality inquiry system, created in 1977. The ministry produced the document in early 2014 as it sought stakeholder feedback for proposed changes to the Fatality Inquiries Act.

A fatality inquiry is a legal proceeding which examines a preventable death, or one which requires greater public scrutiny or investigation. A provincial court judge oversees the process and may issue recommendations to governments and institutions to prevent similar deaths in future.

Alberta is the only province in Canada which uses a Fatality Review Board - comprised of a doctor, a lawyer, and a layperson - to recommend which cases proceed to a fatality inquiry. The internal document says the board members are not required to have "experience, qualifications, or training in sudden-death investigations."

As a result, the document states, the board not only recommends too many inquiries, which strain court resources, "it often does not recommend inquiries in cases where a public fatality inquiry should have been conducted."

Even when an inquiry is held and a judge issues recommendations, the province does not track them and, under the current legislation, can't force institutions to comply with them. Critics say this raises questions about why the system even exists, because it has such limited ability to prevent future deaths.

Overhaul needed

Cyr said the legislation should have been rewritten long ago.

"When government has an inquiry system that doesn't appear to have any real way of enacting (change), that is a problem," he said.

The internal document provides a detailed prescription for fixing the flawed system.

It says the provincial government should eliminate the Fatality Review Board and replace it with three death-review committees, comprised of experts. The committees - one each for children, adults, and seniors - would make recommendations to prevent similar deaths and track their implementation. If necessary, the committees would recommend to the justice minister that a case proceed to a fatality inquiry.

The committees would also gather long-term data on preventable deaths - data which experts say is critical, but missing in Alberta.

In an interview Monday, Ganley conceded she had not seen the internal document. She said her ministry claimed it is bound by the previous government's cabinet confidentiality. But several sources told CBC News the document was broadly distributed to stakeholders outside government.

Ganley also did not have any knowledge of her ministry's previous work on the issue and could not provide a specific explanation why a new review was necessary.

"I understand that the previous government was in power for a long time and they had some ideas on how things should work," Ganley said. "But I think that, from my perspective, we would like to satisfy ourselves, as the new government, that we are doing the best to protect all Albertans."

Cyr said he doesn't understand why the NDP government has not already acted on the document's detailed recommendations.

"You would think that over the last 38 years this (system) would have been reviewed and updated," Cyr said.

"It is very distressing that we are lagging behind in this area."