FROM THE REGISTRAR’S DESK
... Continued from pg. 7
Public members are
fully engaged in the
work of the College and
bring professionalism,
integrity and critical
thinking to all the
duties they perform
in serving the public
interest of Ontario.
8
rewarding – is demanding and can
be emotionally draining.
But here is the concern – we
ask public members to perform
that work, and assume that much
responsibility for $150 per day.
That is the per diem rate that the
government pays public members.
To be blunt, we do not believe
that $150 comes even close to being commensurate with the time
given, the responsibility shouldered or the workload assumed of
public members.
And while we are concerned with
the amount of the per diem, we are
also uneasy about the increasing
narrowness of services for which
the per diem is applied, the increasingly narrow interpretation of
the expense claim guidelines, and
the considerable time that it is taking for public members to receive
reimbursement by government for
travel, per diems and other associated expenses relating to their role
as a College Council and committee member.
Of particular concern is the
fact that public members are not
recognized and supported for a
significant portion of their work as
members of Council. The reimbursement for decision writing,
deliberation time and preparation
time for some statutory committee
meetings falls significantly short of
what is required. And preparation
time for all non-statutory committees, task forces and policy work-
ing groups is not reimbursed at all.
For example, the working group
charged with the development of
the recently approved Professional
Obligations and Human Rights
policy reviewed approximately
9,000 responses to the public
consultation. And yet, the public
member who is part of the working group will not receive any
reimbursement for this activity.
Public members are fully engaged
in the work of the College and
bring professionalism, integrity and
critical thinking to all the duties
they perform in serving the public
interest of Ontario. They provide
an invaluable perspective on medical regulation and help justify the
public trust in the College. And of
course, we are deeply appreciative
of the provincial government’s work
in attracting and appointing such
dedicated and skilled individuals to
Council. But we all believe – physician and public members of Council alike – that this lack of support
is not sustainable in the long run
and will have an impact on morale
and productivity.
We will continue to bring our
concerns to the attention of the
government. In the meantime, I
believe that it is important for the
members of the profession to understand the extraordinary public
service that our public members
provide to medical regulation. We
are very grateful and appreciative
of their commitment.
Dialogue Issue 1, 2015
Issue1_15.indd 8
2015-03-19 11:18 AM