William Warren Munroe

                                                                                                                        763 Beach Road

                                                                                                                        Qualicum Beach, BC, V9K 1S2

                                                                                                                        April 15, 2020

Honourable David Eby

Attorney General

Parliament Buildings

Victoria, British Columbia V8V 1X4

Sent via email:  AG.Minister@gov.bc.ca

Regarding: copy of letter to Minister of Labour, Harry Bains (March 31, 2020) requesting a change to the Employment Standards Act (ESA) Section 6 to include “… truthful (rather than false) information …”; as well as, exoneration for BC government employees wrongfully/unjustly terminated

Dear Attorney General, David Eby,

Firstly, thank you very much for all you have done and are doing to improve the lives of British Columbians, including ordinary people, not just those at the top.

I write to you because of your role as set out in your mandate letter, particularly to “deliver the services that people count on”.

A public service that people count on includes counting people - statistics disseminated by BC’s official statistical agency, BC Statistics, including population estimates and forecasts by age and sex used to guide public services that people count on.

Unfortunately, there are many examples of substandard practices resulting in population numbers that people cannot count on. For example, for at least one ten-year period (from 2002 to 2011), BC Statistics officials published population numbers accompanied with incorrect methods and data. Parents, guardians and citizens concerned about public school closures, were counting on reliable estimates and forecasts of school aged children, pre-schoolers and adults (as set out in the BC School Act). When asked why the new forecast were so much lower that the previous forecast, the Superintendent of Schools replied “Any attempt to suggest/imply a grassy knoll conspiracy theory is disrespectful …” As a result of the assertions claiming continued declining enrolment, public schools were closed as enrolment began to increase again (boom bust echo).

In 2014, an article in a newspaper with nation-wide distribution (National Post) was titled “Canada’s latest baby boom caught experts by surprise”; however, this neglected the expert, the Author, who in 2007-08, was raising awareness about the increasing number of children under 5 years of age due to the increase number of females of child-bearing age as well as the increase in child women ratios.

BC Statistics officials also provided the same incorrect methods and data accompanying unsupported population numbers to Statistics Canada and ultimately Finance Canada (February 28, 2005). This deception resulted in Statistics Canada officials endorsing BC Statistics methods and data as being of “better quality” than Statistics Canada’s methods and data when compared to the Census of Population. When in fact, BC Statistics methods and data were of “poorer quality” than Statistics Canada’s.

Even official statistical agency officials can make mistakes; however, mistakes should not be covered up including firing statistical office analyst(s) who raise concerns about substandard practices similar to the treatment of BC legislature staff, health ministry researchers, residential tenancy arbitrator, etc.

Some of the evidence of my wrongful / unjust termination while serving the public as Population Analyst with BC Statistics includes:

o Required to file complaint after being accused by manager of egregious behaviour – making a female co-worker feel unsafe - an accusation made at a meeting I requested with the manager and BCPSA and BCGEU representatives to request Workplace Skills courses. An accusation made after I provided examples of substandard practices

o Executive Director (who recommended to the Deputy Minister restricting the manager position job posting from open to people across Canada to BC Statistics personnel only so only one person would get the job) investigates then determined “the resolution is there is no resolution” (December 12, 2005)

o Ordered by manager to turn in my security pass and leave the building (Feb 15, 2006) after forwarding my complaint to the Deputy Minister about substandard practices and retaliation and requesting Workplace Skills courses (January 30, 2006 – within time limits after an approved extension)

o Ordered to attend meeting (even though I had been fired). Registered in a Family Assistance Program including assessment of a believed behavioural problem (Feb 22, 2006)

o Officially dismissed for insubordination (April 28, 2006 – date I received the dismissal letter from the Deputy Minister) – not submitting to an inappropriate “assessment” nor attending the inappropriate FAP, instead advocating Workplace Skills courses

o Denied fair hearing into the real matters in dispute – substandard practices (Oct 1, 2007)

o Labour relations Board see no problems here (June, October 2008 and again in June 2009) – over 3 years of post termination proceedings

o I discovered that BC Statistics’ officials still had not published the many changes made to the methods used to create population numbers (October 2010)

o An admission by new BC Statistics’ Executive Director that the numbers “people count on” lack integrity – numbers accompanied with incorrect methodology for over 10 years – a correction “long overdue” (August 2011)

o Statistics Canada’s endorsement (gained through deception, 2005) used by Minister responsible to dismiss concerns about BC Statistics’ admitted lack of integrity (Nov 2011)

o FOI request for source of the quote (“better quality”) used to assert the integrity of BC Statistics, denied claiming “disclosure harmful to intergovernmental relations or negotiations” (June 2012)

o Discovering deception - inconsistencies between provincial and federal documents reveals BC Statistics’ officials false reporting (received June 2012; I replied in October 2012)

o Request the implementation of formal policies and clear accountabilities to help safeguard the integrity of BC Statistics analytic products; however, BC Statistics’ Executive Director “sees no value” in continuing to address integrity (2013)

o Letter to Employer, Queen Elizabeth II providing another reason why experts did not see the 2008 financial crisis coming (2 ½ pages, Aug 2016) and reply (Oct 2016).

o Whistleblower submission (May 2018) dismissed (Aug 2018) asserting that there are always arguments about methods thereby ignoring the main point in the submission – BC Statistics’ deception - false methodology provided to citizens concerned about claims of continual declining enrolment regarding public school closures as well as deceiving Statistics Canada officials by providing false methodology and unfounded ‘findings’ for a study of methodologies to be used to determine Canada’s Equalization Payments Programme.

• etc.  For more information go to http://wminfomatics.com/WP/index2.html

Attached, you will find a copy of my letter to Minister of Labour, Harry Bains, cc’d to you dated March 31, 2020, wherein, supporting explanations and evidence are provided in four sections all addressing collective agreements between provincial government of British Columbia employers’ representatives and employees:

1) An employer must not threaten to dismiss a person because information may be or has been supplied under the ESA – violation of ESA and BC Labour Code;

2) Exculpatory evidence of wrongdoing (deception - false information) and attempted cover-up;

3) Comparison of false versus truthful information from government employers’ representatives given to a government employee; (this section provides a hypothetical dialogue of truthful information from an Employer’s representative to an employee rather than false information regarding employment as well as product and services standards)

4) Request for exoneration.

Also attached to my letter to Minister Bains were two letters providing evidence from correspondence:

1) a letter to BC’s Attorney General, July 2012, updated July 2013, describing my experience having served the public as an Analyst for BC’s official statistical agency, BC Statistics, online at wminfomatics.com/WP/Articles/120704/MinJust4l_ed2.pdf

2) a letter to both the Minister responsible for BC Statistics and Statistics Canada’s Chief Statistician, Demography Division, sent in October 2012, and delivered to the Legislature Building to the Minister, January 2013, online at: http://www.wminfomatics.com/WP/Articles/121019/STC_MLCS_2.pdf (No reply)

Mr. Eby, I have highlighted the fact that the estimates and forecasts of the number of people people count on have lacked integrity and yet, to my knowledge, formal policies and clear accountabilities have yet to be implemented to help safeguard the integrity (all parts included – nothing important left out – from integer – whole – correct methods and data accompanying findings rather than incorrect methods and data accompanying unsupported numbers) of the population numbers people count on.

Your comments and or suggestions are appreciated.

Yours truly,

William Warren Munroe

Population Projections Project for Canada’s census areas

www.wminfomatics.com/PopulationProjections/Home.html

A .pdf of the letter to Minister Bains along with a .html version are available online.