REGINA — Opposition New Democrats were taking aim Wednesday at a request for proposals from the Saskatchewan Health Authority for what the NDP is calling a “snitch line.”
In a statement, the SHA said an RFP was publicly posted to “explore an anonymous reporting mechanism for serious concerns such as fraud, conflicts of interest, or other wrongdoing.”
But at a news conference at the Legislature, NDP Health Critic Meara Conway said she believes the mechanism could be used by the Sask. Party government to muzzle health-care workers who speak out about conditions in their facilities.
“While workers provide health care against all odds in overrun hospitals, this government and their loyal SHA leadership are making quiet plans to launch, and let's be very clear about what this is, a snitch line,” said Conway.
“This is a heavy-handed tool, and I'm sure that the hope is that it will be used to silence health-care workers who speak out about unsafe conditions at work. And it would seem this proposal flies directly in the face of existing whistleblower protections, which exist to protect health-care workers, at least in theory. It is unbelievable to me that this premier and this SHA board are more worried about muzzling workers than fixing health care. Health care here in Saskatchewan right now is in worse shape than it's ever been.”
She called it “an attempt to turn Saskatchewan people on health-care workers and to turn workers on workers.” Conway also claimed the tender came just one day after a letter was sent by more than 200 health-care workers at St. Paul’s Hospital to the SHA about unsafe conditions.
“Instead of listening to these workers, more staff, better pay, a contract, safer conditions of work, more support, find efficiencies, leadership that listens, we see this government move to more surveillance,” said Conway.
“This is a desperate move from a government whose current approach to health-care workers' concerns is to tell them to keep quiet and keep their heads down.”
SHA response
In its response, the SHA said the public RFP had initially been posted in January 2025 and was reposted Jan. 13, 2026, after “no vendor submissions were identified that met the organization’s requirements through the initial procurement process.”
The SHA added that anonymous reporting “is a widely used best practice across Canadian health systems and major employers, and it is intended to ensure staff have a safe reporting option to raise concerns without fear of reprisal, particularly when they may not feel comfortable coming forward through other channels.”
They pointed to a 2024 report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, which found that “organizations with reporting mechanisms were nearly twice as likely to detect fraud via tip as organizations without, illustrating the important role that reporting mechanisms play in detecting fraud.”
The SHA also said that before the initial RFP posting in January 2025, it engaged union partners to inform them of the work and seek input. The authority said it will “continue engagement with union partners and communicate openly with health-care teams to ensure any mechanism implemented supports a culture of honesty and trust.”
