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Abused were fiscal target - Simon
Grits accused of cynical program cuts
Simon: Dollars mattered more than victims
Ted Lohnes, who worked at the old Shelburne School for Boys,
showed up for a public accounts committee meeting Wednesday at which
members reviewed compensation payments to people who say they were abused
at provincial youth institutions.
By Dean Jobb / Staff Reporter
Politics and the bottom line were behind the government's 1996 decision to
revamp its controversial program to compensate victims of abuse in youth centres,
the program's former director said Wednesday.
Paula Simon told the legislature's public accounts committee that there was little
evidence former residents were falsifying claims of abuse when the then-governing
Liberals unilaterally breached the agreement, negotiated with claimants' lawyers, that established the program.
"The need to stay within budget far outweighed the need to honour the
(memorandum of agreement)," she said.
Some in government, she added,
took the view that "the survivors (of abuse) were unpopular and that the
(agreement) could be broken without a lot of heat coming down on the government."
Liberal MLA Jim Smith, who was justice minister during later phases of the
program, defended his government's decision to change the program. He said
Wednesday it was "out of control" and needed improvements to ensure accountability.
Ms. Simon said she quit in October 1996 as director of victims'
services for the Department of Justice because she believed the government
had a moral obligation to honour the deal.
It's the first time Ms. Simon has publicly explained her resignation from the
program, which has seen its budget balloon in the face of a
deluge of claims of physical and sexual abuse dating back decades.
When created in mid-1996, the program had a budget of $33 million
to settle the less than 500 claims expected to be filed by
former residents of the former Shelburne School for Boys and other youth institutions.
More than 1,450 people filed claims.
By the end of last year, with only a few claims remaining to be settled,
the program had paid $30.7 million in compensation and nearly $10
million for therapy. Lawyers' fees and administration costs bring the total bill to
$56 million, the committee was told Wednesday.
The program was running out of money in the fall of 1996
when officials of the Department of Finance made it clear
they would not tolerate a budget overrun, Ms. Simon testified.
Officials of the Finance and Justice departments held two days of meetings
in October to review their options, she said.
At the time, John Savage's Liberal government was trying to squeeze a small
surplus out of the government's overall budget, and every million counted.
Ms. Simon could not say who suggested there would be little sympathy for
claimants if the program were changed, but the "sentiment" was expressed.
Many former residents have criminal records or were in prison when they
filed claims alleging they were abused as children or teenagers.
A lawyer who acts for about 450 claimants and tried to sue the government
to force it to honour the agreement says the testimony confirms a long-held suspicion.
"That was an extremely cynical basis for policy-making," Anne Derrick said
in an interview Wednesday.
"To hear now that the motivation behind that was because they figured they
could get away with it . . . that's despicable."
Many employees of the youth institutions contend they have been wrongly
accused. They say compensation payments have encouraged false claims of beatings and rapes.
One man has been charged with filing a fraudulent claim and 63 other
suspect claims have been forwarded to the RCMP for investigation.
When the program was overhauled, Ms. Simon said, there were "concerns"
about possible fraud but nothing more.
"There wasn't, in my opinion, anything that would set off alarm bells."
The program was restarted in late 1996 with new requirements, including
more thorough investigation of claims.
Ms. Simon defended the original program against criticism that compensation
was paid without sufficient evidence.
The institutions kept poor records, she noted.
"There was no reason to believe claimants were lying,
because the government did not keep adequate files."
A cache of missing records surfaced in late 1996, about
the time the program was revamped.
Ms. Simon and Alison Scott, then a lawyer with the
Justice Department, put together the program after consultations with
Ontario officials who had worked on similar programs.
All aspects of the program were approved by the
deputy minister and minister of justice and ultimately cabinet, Ms. Simon said.
Wednesday's session was also uncomfortable for the
province's other two political parties.
Ms. Simon is the wife of NDP Leader Robert Chisholm,
and Ms. Scott is now
secretary to the Tory cabinet that has retained retired judge
Fred Kaufman to review the program's fairness to staff and residents.
The committee's vice-chairman, David Morse, disallowed
many questions about
false claims and the concerns of former employees, saying the
committee had to take care not to prejudice police investigation
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