Touchdown: City of Toronto acts swiftly

Veritas Team Huddle Compiled By Lisa An

Earlier this week, nine City of Toronto employees were fired for submitting fraudulent insurance benefit claims. The scams were discovered two weeks ago as a result of an audit conducted by Manulife Financial, the city’s insurance benefit provider. Personally, I was pleased by the city’s response on two fronts: first, as a taxpayer, for getting rid of individuals who abuse the system and second, as a communications professional, for acknowledging the problem and quickly acting upon it. No matter how you look at it, this is not a good news story, so the city will automatically be on the defensive, especially since the situation affects public funds. The problem is also compounded by the fact that Mayor David Miller and city councillors can’t reveal many details about the scam due to the ongoing police investigation, nor can they reveal information on how they hold other city employees accountable due to privacy rules. But it was the view of the Veritas team that, as a communications play, the city did a number of things right despite the challenges they face in public opinion. The city controlled initial messages by promptly issuing press releases after key events: one, immediately after the findings came to light and the second following the terminations. Mayor Miller reiterated key messages saying the city has “no tolerance” for wrongdoing and Councillor Doug Holyday, who chairs the city’s audit committee, put the situation into perspective by stating that nine dishonest employees isn’t many when compared to the 51,000 individuals who work for the city. The city’s fraud and waste hotline, which receives tips on employee abuse, revealed 42 substantiated claims but Mayor Miller focused on the positive by saying the revelations prove the systems that monitor employee abuse work and that “99.9%” of city staff work in “the public interest, not self-interest.” The city handled this challenge well but for extra bonus points we think the city should communicate in the near future what steps they are taking to ensure a similar circumstance won’t happen again. This will close the loop on a difficult issues management situation.