BackOn 19 August 2025, BC Ombudsperson Jay Chalke released four reports to support the Legislative Assembly’s mandatory five-year review of the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA). The reports give legislators real case examples, lessons learned, and proposed amendments to strengthen the Act, based on the Ombudsperson’s experience investigating disclosures of public wrongdoing.
“PIDA has worked well in many respects. Employees are using it, public bodies have worked hard to implement it, and important disclosures have been investigated, resulting in improvements to public services,” said Chalke. “At the same time, my office’s analysis of five years of experience highlights where the law is falling short. It’s time to think long term about how this law can best support public sector integrity. This review is an opportunity to build on what’s working and fix what’s not.”
While PIDA has created safe reporting and meaningful investigations, the Ombudsperson’s reports reveal limitations that undermine its effectiveness, including:
- key public sectors and employees are still not covered by the Act
- too few employees are aware of PIDA’s protections and many fear reprisal for speaking up
- too many public sector staff responsible for receiving internal disclosures are not receiving adequate training about their responsibilities under the Act
Public employees in nearly 200 public organizations have rights to disclose wrongdoing internally to their employer or externally to the Ombudsperson. Since PIDA came into force in 2019, the Ombudsperson has handled the majority of disclosures and reprisal complaints under the Act, giving the office an unparalleled perspective on how the law functions in practice.
Kindly click here to read the full article.
Source: The Ombudsperson British Columbia, Canada
