Recommended changes

Following is a list of recommendations contained in B.C. chief coroner Larry Campbell's review of the NWT chief coroner's office.

The chief coroner should not be part of a union, but working on contract to the government.

No files have been concluded for at least the last three years. Summer students should be brought in to help conclude the estimated 450 to 500 files.

Too many inquests have been ordered. Only three of 20 inquests ordered should proceed.

Too many bodies are shipped south for post-mortem examinations.

The current coroner fee schedule needs to be changed. Coroners should be paid $20 per hour or a maximum of $150 per 24-hour period.

A database developed by GNWT computer services but rejected by former chief coroner Jo MacQuarrie should be set up.

A "dizzying array" of forms needs to be reduced by combining the uses of some and eliminating those no longer needed.

The inefficiency of the current filing system makes the files "quite worthless." Summer students should be brought in to put it in order.

The chief coroner and director of court services should develop detailed annual budgets.

The more than five-year-old policy and procedures manual needs to be updated.

by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 21/97) - A review of the NWT chief coroner's office, touched off by concerns over spending, says there is plenty of room for improvement.

Commissioned by the territorial Department of Justice, the report says the office ordered too many inquests, unnecessarily shipped bodies south for examinations, was disorganized and needs to clarify policies and procedures for dealing with untimely deaths.

The 24-page report recommends 10 ways to improve operation of the office and suggests a number of changes to the Coroner's Act.

Acting deputy minister of justice Gerry Sutton said the cost of running the office was motivated the review.

"There was a concern about spending levels in the coroners office. They were perceived to be high, so we wanted a review done," Sutton said.

One change recommended is contracting the position of chief coroner, which is currently a union position.

The report's author, B.C. chief coroner Larry Campbell, reasoned there could be a perception of bias in the case of a chief coroner investigating the death of a union member at a work site.

"The independence of the chief coroner ... must not only be real but also be perceived as real," wrote Campbell.

Sutton said that recommendation has been accepted by the department.

The remaining recommendations, apart from changes to the Coroners Act, have either been implemented or accepted in principle and await implementation by the new chief coroner.

Union of Northern Workers regional vice-president Dave Talbot did not return calls to his office Wednesday.

Next week the Justice Department will be advertising for a contracted replacement for Jo MacQuarrie, who served as chief coroner from 1992 until the past summer, when she negotiated a termination package with the government.

The agreement prohibits MacQuarrie from speaking publicly about her term as chief coroner.

Since MacQuarrie's departure, Cathy Menard has served as acting chief coroner.

Campbell, who Sutton said was paid $1,875 to do the report, visited and reviewed the office in April and submitted the report to the department in June.

MacQuarrie's tenure was punctuated by an attempted lay off by then justice minister Stephen Kakfwi in 1995. The decision was quickly reversed after a public outcry.