TORONTO

It doesn’t pay to be a whistleblower in Ontario. Literally.

Just ask Toronto Emergency Medical Services (EMS) senior paramedics Mike Merriman and Ken Horton.

Well, you could if they were allowed to talk publicly.

They have spent the past month drawing public attention to serial waste and mismanagement at the highest levels of this essential service provider.

We can reveal both were silenced and suspended without pay Wednesday for their troubles.

Through the Toronto Sun the two union shop stewards have spoken publicly about stupendous amounts of overtime being paid to senior managers. This runaway overtime erodes the $170 million in annual funding provided by the city that could hire more frontline staff.

As a consequence this newspaper named dozens of senior managers who are never required to deal with a patient earning up to 50% on top of their yearly pay rate in overtime. It has been going on for years.

Then there’s the mismanagement of money designed to fund capital infrastructure works like the 38 Station garage at Kipling and Horner Aves., expanded to be better able to house support buses.

One problem. It was only after the work was completed somebody realized that the EMS buses couldn’t navigate the turning radius of the driveway. Nobody had ever measured it.

Millions wasted yet again. The list goes on and on with the latest claims made Wednesday.

Both Horton and Merriman have plenty of supporters within EMS. The public is behind them, too.

Here is a note sent to me from a concerned citizen after we first broke the story of Toronto EMS mismanagement.

“I am so happy to see a reporter take an interest in the EMS service in Toronto...the average citizen such as myself is not aware of the lack of frontline workers and the subsequent burn out of current medics and public safety issues.

“I also think this is a great time to be talking about this as they are introducing a new schedule and thus far to my knowledge over 16 Level 3 medics have stepped down to a lower level. This means not only do we have a shortage of medics; we now have less Level 3 medics to handle big emergencies like heart attacks and strokes.

“I think there is a mishandling of the service from an administrative level and lack of awareness and funding. Thank you for your hard work in this area.”

Dozens more letters, e-mails and phone calls have encouraged the Merriman and Horton as they blew the whistle on EMS’ profligate use of taxpayer funds.

The Ontario Employment Standards Act specifically states that whistle blowers are protected from reprisal when they speak out.

Now it appears that Toronto EMS has taken itself out of the provisions of the act — or willfully defied it — by suspending two workers without pay.

It declined to comment on the matter Thursday.

One person happy to comment was Mark Ferguson, president of Toronto Civic Employees Union, Local 416. He said he was disappointed his two members were punished without recourse.

“We have filed a grievance and have started the process of mediation,” Ferguson said. “It is a huge disappointment we have to do this to protect the rights of employees – and union representatives — who speak out in the public interest.”