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CTV News
a day ago
- Business
- CTV News
Judge denies N.B. auditor general's request to view internal audit reports on travel nurses
A Court of King's Bench justice has denied the New Brunswick auditor general's request to view Vitalité Health Network's internal audit reports on the agency's travel nurse contracts that began in 2022. According to a written decision from Chief Justice Tracey DeWare, the auditor general sought to compel Vitalité to disclose the reports as part of its investigation into the management and use of travel nurses. The decision says Vitalité ordered an internal audit for the period spanning August 2022 to June 2023. 'The Respondent (Vitalité) asserts these internal audits confirmed the existence of deficiencies in the performance of the agency nurses' contract with one of the agencies – Canadian Health Labs ('CHL'),' the decision reads. 'The Respondent and CHL are now involved in litigation arising from this contract. 'The Respondent has refused to produce the internal audit reports on the basis they were properly subject to both a litigation and solicitor-client privilege.' Last year, the auditor general's audit found Vitalité, Horizon Health Network and the Department of Social Development spent $173 million on travel nurse contracts between Jan. 1, 2022 and Feb. 29, 2024. 'The purpose of the audit was to determine if government contracts with private nursing agencies represented good value relative to their costs,' the written decision reads. 'As part of the audit process, the Applicant (auditor general) requested from the Respondent various information and documents. The Applicant was particularly interested in governance practices, policies and billings to the agencies.' Chief Justice DeWare said the auditor general argued section 13 of the Auditor General Act allows them to access documents and information that would otherwise be private or confidential. Vitalité argued the disclosure of the internal audit reports would 'prejudice its ability to prosecute the action against CHL.' Chief Justice DeWare said the court must interpret section 13 of the act restrictively, noting that it does not refer to privileged information. 'While I appreciate the Applicant's argument, the addition of the words 'confidential and private' to section 13 indicates an expanded scope to the information which could be sought, it falls short of explicitly stating an intention to have access to 'privileged' documents,' the decision reads. 'Solicitor-client privilege and litigation privilege are foundational to our legal system. 'Section 13(a) of the Act does not grant the Auditor General the authority to require production of documents or information which are properly subject to a solicitor-client or litigation privilege.' Chief Justice DeWare dismissed the auditor general's application and said Vitalité is entitled to costs, which are fixed at $2,000. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
CBC
15-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Travel nurse company launches 2 more lawsuits against Vitalité
A travel nurse company has launched two more lawsuits against Vitalité Health Network for allegedly breaching the terms of two contracts that expired last year. Canadian Health Labs filed notices of action with the Court of King's Bench in Saint John Wednesday over the contracts, which were both signed in 2022 and expired in June and September 2024, respectively, according to the documents. The Ontario-based company alleges, among other things, that Vitalité deployed fewer "human health resource professionals" than stipulated in the contracts, failed to pay invoices, and terminated a renewal "unilaterally and improperly." It contends it has suffered losses as a result of the health authority's actions and is seeking compensation, including punitive, aggravated and special damages, as well as costs and pre-judgment interest at a rate of seven per cent. Canadian Health Labs previously filed a lawsuit against Vitalité for allegedly breaching another contract that was slated to continue until Feb. 5, 2026, after the health authority cancelled the remaining shifts of its travel nurses in January. Bill is 'as tight as we can make it,' minister says The two new legal actions came to light Tuesday night when Health Minister Dr. John Dornan appeared before the legislature's standing committee on economic policy to discuss a number of proposed amendments to a bill designed to get the government out of that costly contract without facing any legal or financial penalties. Green Party Leader David Coon questioned how the bill, entitled An Act Respecting Travel Nurses, got tabled in its original form "without the experts in contract law catching the problems" that prompted the numerous amendments, echoing earlier musings by Tammy Scott-Wallace, the Tory MLA for Sussex-Three Rivers, about whether the original was "scribbled on the back of the napkin." Dornan told Coon that when the government first presented the bill, its "primary purpose, with advice from the [Office of the Attorney General], was to protect ourselves from the third contract, which was still in force." Since then, "actions have arisen that included the expired contracts," he said. Vitalité's lawyers had also raised concerns about the expired contracts not being included, Dornan said. So the government decided it would be "prudent, and perhaps safer, to nullify all three contracts," which covered from July 2022 to February 2026 and totalled $98 million, according to Auditor General Paul Martin. The company charged about $300 an hour per nurse — roughly six times what a local staff nurse earns. "The contracts with private nursing agencies were not reflective of best practices and did not demonstrate value for money," Martin has said. The bill passed second reading and will readily become law, given the Liberals' majority, but whether it will protect the government and Vitalité from being sued by Canadian Health Labs remains unclear. "It's as tight as we can make it," Dornan said in response to questions from Scott-Wallace. "It does not absolutely preclude these current actions or subsequent actions, but it does afford us a better protection than the original bill, and we feel that the actions commenced are less likely to be successful with these amendments," Dornan said. Company lawyer slams bill In response to the amended bill, Canadian Health Labs' lawyer Matthew Hayes fired off a letter to Justice Minister Rob McKee Wednesday, urging the province to reconsider. "We assert that the Legislature's actions to deny Canadian Health Labs its contractual rights, while actively resisting transparency, represent an unprecedented and troubling misuse of legislative authority," he wrote in the letter obtained by CBC News, which was copied to Dornan, Premier Susan Holt, Coon and interim Opposition Leader Glen Savoie. Hayes described the amended bill as a "deliberate act of legislative bad faith." "As acknowledged by the Dr. Dornan, Minister of Health, Canadian Health Labs played a critical role in responding during a time of urgent crisis, saving lives in New Brunswick. However, once the contract was deemed no longer advantageous, the government appears to have taken steps to deprive Canadian Health Labs of the negotiated benefits," he wrote. "The Minister of Health has also admitted that Vitalité Health Network continues to employ nurses from other agencies, raising questions about the fairness and intent of these actions." In addition, Vitalité chose not to terminate its agreement with Canadian Health Labs, "seemingly to enable the government to attempt to legislate this commercial agreement out of existence," demonstrating a "lack of honesty, transparency and accountability," Hayes alleged. None of the allegations in the statements of claim have been proven in court.
CBC
10-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Travel nurse company launches lawsuit against Vitalité
A travel nurse company is suing Vitalité Health Network over alleged breaches of contract, including non-payments, as well as anticipatory breach of contract. Canadian Health Labs filed its lawsuit with the Court of King's Bench in Saint John on March 21 — two days after the provincial government introduced legislation to get out of the contract with the Toronto-based company and avoid facing legal or financial penalties. That legislation has not yet been passed. Vitalité cancelled the remaining shifts of travel nurses employed by Canadian Health Labs (CHL) on Jan. 30, even though its controversial contract with the private staffing agency wasn't set to expire until next year. In its statement of claim, Canadian Health Labs alleges it has suffered loss and damages, and will continue to suffer "irreparable" harm to its reputation. It is seeking damages in a number of areas, including for alleged unpaid invoices, for breach of the duty of good faith, for "unjust enrichment," and for "intentional interference with economic relations," as well as costs. The claim is also asking for pre-judgment interest at a rate of seven per cent. WATCH | Premier Holt says she's 'quite confident' in proposed legislation to get N.B. out of contract: New Brunswick wanted to avoid getting sued over travel nurses — but lawsuit now filed 4 hours ago Duration 1:45 In addition, the company is seeking a declaration that its contract is valid and legally binding, and a permanent injunction to prevent Vitalité from soliciting the company's nurses to work directly for the regional health network instead of another travel nurse company it deals with. None of the allegations have been proven in court. Vitalité has not yet filed a response. In an emailed statement Thursday, an unidentified spokesperson for the regional health network said it not been served "with any statement of claim or other originating process before the Court of King's Bench. "We recommend that you contact CHL. We are not in a position to speak to their legal actions or intentions." Canadian Health Labs declined to comment through spokesperson Tom Vernon. No plan for public inquiry The Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment but Premier Susan Holt addressed the lawsuit during her weekly update on U.S. tariffs in Fredericton on Thursday. She called the timing of the lawsuit "interesting" and vowed to fight to defend New Brunswickers against what she called "a bad contract." " I feel quite confident in the legislation that we've put forward. I think it's strong and it will do what we need it to do," she said. "I think our case against CHL is strong. In the face of a bad contract, I don't know how they can defend it, but we're putting the mechanisms in place to protect New Brunswickers." Although the Liberals called for a public inquiry into the travel nurse contracts while in Opposition, Holt said her government has no plans for one "at this point," but they do plan to get to the bottom of how this contract happened. Vitalité's three contracts with the company, which covered from July 2022 to February 2026, totalled $98 million, according to Auditor General Martin. The company charged about $300 an hour per nurse — roughly six times what a local staff nurse earns. While the health system was facing dire staffing shortages in 2022 when the authority signed its first contract with Canadian Health Labs, the deployment of travel nurses in Vitalité's hospitals "did not correlate with staff absences due to COVID-19," Martin found in June. "The contracts with private nursing agencies were not reflective of best practices and did not demonstrate value for money," he said. Terms of the contract According to the statement of claim, the parties entered a contract on Dec. 2, 2022, where the company would supply Vitalité with human health resources to "fill critical staffing gaps" in its hospitals. The contract was slated to end on Feb. 5, 2026, "subject to rights of extension or early termination set out in the contract," the document states. Under the contract, the company was to deploy human health resources in teams, with each team consisting of an agreed upon ratio of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and administrative and management staff. The contract required Vitalité to meet certain deployment levels measured in "team days" — a certain number of hours being worked by the collective team per day. Generally, Vitalité was to compensate the company by way of a fixed fee per team day. Vitalité was also responsible for paying Canadian Health Labs' expenses, including travel and boarding costs for the workers, according to the statement of claim. 'Numerous breaches' The company alleges Vitalité committed "numerous breaches." These include that Vitalité has not paid agreed amounts for services, stopped using CHL nurses before the contract expired, and encouraged nurses to leave the company. Vitalité "repeatedly failed" to meet the payment terms and timelines under the contract, according to the court document. "Several invoices" remain unpaid our partially unpaid, it says. "The failure of Vitalité to pay the outstanding amounts constitutes a breach of the terms of the contract, is evidence of bad faith in commercial dealings by Vitalité and results in an unjust enrichment to Vitalité," the company claims. Canadian Health labs also alleges Vitalité underpaid for some services. The company, "in a good faith effort to help resolve some of the issues between the parties regarding its other contractual relationships … temporarily agreed to transfer certain Teams deployed by Vitalité under another contract between the parties to be used under this contract." No details about the other contracts are provided, but the transferred teams had a higher proportion of registered nurses to licensed practical nurses and cost more, yet Vitalité "refused or failed" to compensate the company for the higher-cost teams or correct the ratios. The company contends Vitalité stopped using its nurses on Jan. 30, has indicated it does not intend any further deployments, and refuses to discuss the matter, referring to this as "anticipatory breach of contract." On Jan. 30, Vitalité advised CHL nurses that the contract was being cancelled and that they should seek alternate employment with either Vitalité or another travel agency, This "unauthorized communication" contained "misrepresentations, factual inconsistencies, and confidential and privileged information," according to the statement of claim. It resulted in "significant contractual turmoil" between Canadian Health Labs and its human health resources, significant disruption between CHL and its other logistics support providers, and significant reputational harm, the company contends.
CBC
19-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Province introduces legislation to cancel travel nurse contract that cost millions
Social Sharing The Holt government introduced new legislation Wednesday that would cancel a travel nurse contract with Canadian Health Labs. "Vitalité signed a contract with CHL in the midst of the pandemic. We were desperate," said Health Minister John Dornan. "The contract that we signed was not a good contract for New Brunswickers, for taxpayers." By using legislation to cancel the contract the province doesn't expect to face financial or legal penalties. The contract was signed by Vitalite in 2022 as the health-care system faced dire staffing shortages. The agreement was later slammed by Auditor General Paul Martin, who said it carried a significant amount of risk and contained an auto-renewal clause should Canadian Health Labs meet its French-language obligations. "The contracts with private nursing agencies were not reflective of best practices and did not demonstrate value for money," Martin said in his report. WATCH | 'We were desperate.' Travel nurse contracts to be axed: New Brunswick to scrap controversial travel nurse contract 41 minutes ago Duration 2:07 Vitalité's three contracts with the company, which covered from July 2022 to February 2026, totalled $98 million, according to Martin. The company charged about $300 an hour per nurse — roughly six times what a local staff nurse earns. Dornan said he's confident the province will be able to fulfil its staffing needs. "We feel that we will be well served and have adequate nurses for our system without this contract.". Vitalité recently cancelled the shifts of Canadian Health Labs' nurses working in its facilities. Department of Finance officials confirmed to CBC News on Tuesday that the 2025-2026 budget contained no money for travel nurses. However, Dornan told reporters Wednesday that there are still a handful of nurses from different agencies working in the province, but said the need for travel nurses decreases "on a daily basis." At least $108 million went to pay travel nurses in the fiscal year that ends on March 31. Opposition Leader Glen Savoie said the Higgs government was looking at similar options prior to last October's election. "We were looking at that and what it may cost us in terms of going to the courts," Savoie said. He said if the government feels this is the right thing to do, "then we'll support that, but we want to know the details on how they intend to manage through the situation such as a possible court challenge and ensure people are getting health care." Green Leader David Coon said the move needed to happen, considering the concerns with the contract. "This was overdue. I don't know who signed that contract but it was ill-conceived and ill-determined and should never have been signed," he said. "This is the best way to move forward and relieve Vitalité of that burden." Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, applauded the government for taking action, but says the next step will be to ensure the need for agency nurses is permanently reduced. "We saw Horizon did that last September. There were some pains in the beginning, but we managed to work through that and I think Vitalité can really learn from Horizon's mistakes," she said. "I'd really like to see a three-month, six-month, 12-month plan put in place to actually phase out the use of these private, for-profit companies." Doucet hopes the union will be back at the bargaining table with the government soon and said that the lack of a contract can be an impediment to attracting new nursing graduates to work in the province. According to a news release from the province, there was a net increase of 393 nurses over the last year, and there are nearly a thousand more students enrolled in nursing programs than in 2018. One of the government's signature election promises was to make $10,000 retention payments to nurses working in permanent roles in the province. Another $5,000 bonus will go out this year.
CBC
04-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Vitalité tells Canadian Health Labs' travel nurses not to come to work
Vitalité Health Network has cancelled the remaining shifts of travel nurses employed by Canadian Health Labs, even though its controversial contract with the Toronto-based staffing agency doesn't expire until next year. Premier Susan Holt confirmed the move to CBC News Tuesday morning during a news conference about the province's action plan in response to 25 per cent tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. "Vitalité has been taking aggressive action to get us out of a bad contract," said Holt. "We know that the CHL contract has been a source of frustration, cost and an issue for New Brunswickers and an issue for our nurses who watched folks come into our province, get paid significantly more than them and see some of them lose shifts and lose opportunities," she said. "So we are glad to be getting out of that contract and focusing on New Brunswick nurses, who we need to retain and support for the long-term health of our health-care system." Contract remains in effect Vitalité declined an interview request, but in an emailed statement said it remains in discussions with Canadian Health Labs. "Given the confidential nature of these discussions and the ongoing dispute, we will not comment on the specific details of the matter. However, we can confirm that our contract with CHL remains in effect to this day," the unsigned statement said in French. The regional health authority did not immediately respond to questions, such as whether it's still paying the company, or how it's staffing its hospitals and nursing homes without the private agency nurses. Canadian Health Labs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Auditor general slammed contracts The agreement between Vitalité and the company was the subject of a scathing report by Auditor General Paul Martin in June. While the health system was facing dire staffing shortages in 2022 when the authority signed its first contract with Canadian Health Labs, the deployment of travel nurses in Vitalité's hospitals "did not correlate with staff absences due to COVID-19," Martin said. "The contracts with private nursing agencies were not reflective of best practices and did not demonstrate value for money," he said. What is "quite scary," Martin told MLAs at the time, is that the current Canadian Health Labs contract with Vitalité allows the company to deploy nurses "regardless of the actual need" and still be paid up to $85 million during the life of the agreement. Vitalité recorded a deficit of $52.1 million during the first six months of the current fiscal year, with travel nurses accounting for $44.2 million of that, board member Réjean Després said during January's board meeting. Intends to accelerate 'weaning plan' In its statement Tuesday, Vitalité reiterated its commitment to gradually reduce its reliance on staffing agencies. It has already "significantly" reduced the use of travel nurses through a "weaning plan," which began in the fall of 2023, it said, and plans to accelerate the process this year, with the arrival of new hires, including professionals currently being certified in Canada and nursing graduates from post-secondary institutions in the province. "Our goal of ending our use of agencies by February 2026 remains unchanged," Vitalité said, declining further comment. Union president pleased Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, who has long called for an end of the use of costly private agency nurses, said she hadn't heard confirmation of the latest development. But she did hear a few weeks ago about some nurses employed by Canadian Health Labs who were advised not to go to work at Chauleur Regional Hospital. "They were just told not to show up for their shift and to return their work badges," she said. "I believe it was Chad Doucet, [administrative director of clinical services and professional practice], that sent the e-mail to them and they were to contact him if they had any questions or concerns." Doucet said it's "about time" New Brunswick gets rid of travel nurse contracts and invests in retaining existing nurses and recruiting more. "It's a no-win every time we spend money on private for-profit entities that take taxpayer dollars out of our province."
