The employment history of the Saint John region's medical officer of health, which has come under fire through a recently released audit report, raised no red flags for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick, says the registrar.
Dr. Ed Schollenberg was aware Dr. Kim Barker had resigned as the head of Algoma Public Health in Ontario in January 2015, after a report that the interim chief financial officer she had hired was a convicted fraudster.
He also knew about the "kerfuffle" in Nunavut in October 2018, when the government abruptly announced she was "no longer employed" by public health.
"But you know, from what we got out of all of that, and still have out of all of that, there's nothing that says she can't provide the service she's been recruited to do," said Schollenberg.
The head of the provincial regulatory body said he has "total confidence" in Barker's medical credentials and abilities. He wouldn't have granted her a licence to practise in New Brunswick if he didn't, he said.
KPMG conducted a forensic audit after Barker resigned from Algoma Public Health, but the report only became public in recent days after the Supreme Court of Canada rejected her lengthy battle to keep it private.
The report suggests Barker hired the convicted fraudster —Shaun Rootenberg — to oversee the unit's finances because she wanted to start a romantic relationship with him.
It's unclear how much the New Brunswick government knew about Barker's employment history before it hired her as the medical officer of health for the south, known as Region 2, which covers Sussex to St. Stephen.
CBC News · Posted: Feb 05, 2020 6:00 AM AT | Last Updated: February 5
