B.C.'s MLAs head back to Victoria for a rare summer sitting of the legislature to discuss laws related to the Pacific NorthWest LNG project, but the NDP has another issue it wants to raise about the controversial firings of eight health workers.

BC NDP leader John Horgan spoke to the Early Edition's Rick Cluff about how the investigation is moving forward.

The BC Liberal government has referred the investigation into the health firings to the new Ombudsperson, Jay Chalke. Chalke has raised a number of concerns with having his office conduct the investigation. He makes a presentation today to the Finance Committee. What do you see as the best way of moving this investigation forward so that the fired workers, Roderick MacIsaac's family and British Columbians get the answers they deserve?

I've always been of the view that a full independent inquiry was required. I listened to the premier's comment 'the best minds of law were looking at the question inside the government,' and I think the Premier is missing the point.

The fact that premier is depending on the lawyers that gave advice [to fire the health researchers] two and a half years ago speaks to the need for an inquiry outside the government.

Mr Chalke, in an extensive letter to the finance committee laid out what he believed were the problems and requirements that would be necessary for him to take on the job and be successful, a lot of which is legislative change which is not on the agenda as far as I'm aware.

Chalke wants additional funding for the investigation, he wants to be able to compel testimony even from those who have signed confidentiality agreements, he wants cabinet confidentiality waived and he has raised concerns about the possibility of defamation lawsuits resulting from the findings of his investigation. How can the government go about addressing those big concerns?

They've had some time to think about this, and one would have thought they would have addressed those issues before they made the announcement before they passed the buck off to Mr. Chalke.

Good on him for highlighting the challenges. I rather suspect that in his first week on the job he didn't expect this was the sort of time bomb that would be dropped on his lap.

At the end of the day, I've talked to the [fired healthcare] researchers, the sister of Roderick MacIsaac, they're not satisfied with this approach. They're prepared to waive confidentiality provided they have some confidence it's not the same people that put this inquisition in place that are doing the investigation of it.



Does the NDP have any new documents or revelations about the health scandal that you will reveal in this sitting?

On the last day of the Spring session, I quizzed the Premier for an hour on this. The premier said 'oh it's been done, it's been addressed, I've apologized and everyone's moving on.'

What's missing is accountability. We're going to start today by asking the premier why it was that at the end of May she said everything was fine and then a week later had to admit the RCMP was used as props in a political play by the government of B.C.



This interview was condensed and edited. To hear more, click the audio labelled: NDP use rare legislative sitting to probe Liberals over health firings scandal.