The Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) is being amended to provide greater clarity for government employees who report serious wrongdoings under the act, and support the expansion of PIDA to the broader public sector.
The Province is amending PIDA to ensure consistent interpretation of critical definitions and provisions, and by clarifying statutory roles. In addition, the time to start the prosecution of an offence under PIDA, such as for a reprisal against a whistleblower, is being extended from six months to two years. This makes the reprisal protections in PIDA more meaningful by recognizing that identifying and investigating a reprisal may often take longer than six months. The Province is also more clearly defining key terms in the legislation such as ‘disclosure’ and ‘advice’. These updates will explicitly outline the definition of each term and provide greater clarity around where they apply.