VICTORIA, B.C. -- The Office of the Ombudsperson says it has begun one investigation under British Columbia's new whistleblower protection legislation.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act created a framework to allow public service employees to report serious wrongdoing under protection when it came into effect Dec. 1, 2019.

The office says in an annual report released Wednesday that it received 57 correspondences in the first four months of the new law.

Among those, it says 22 were disclosures, 18 were general inquiries and 17 were requests for advice from employees and former employees.

Half of the disclosures have been fully assessed and the office says one has resulted in an investigation that is ongoing.

The office says investigations weren't launched when complaints didn't meet the statutory definition of wrongdoing or because the person was not entitled to make a disclosure.

“The legal threshold in (the act) for wrongdoing is high and sometimes allegations or evidence in support of allegations are not sufficient to support an investigation under the act. For example, all mismanagement is not considered wrongdoing; only 'gross or systemic' mismanagement is,” the report says.

About 30,000 provincial ministry employees and workers of nine independent offices of the legislature are entitled to protection under the act, however anyone who did not qualified was invited to make a complaint under different legislation.

The office says it expects the protection to be expanded tenfold over the coming years.

“Government has indicated that over the next five years, it intends to apply the law, by regulation, to a broad range of public sector organizations which will potentially encompass more than 300,000 current provincial and local government employees in addition to former employees,” it says.

The new law was introduced following the 2012 firing of eight Health Ministry workers, one of whom later died by suicide.

In a 2017 report, provincial ombudsperson Jay Chalke found that seven workers and a contract employee involved in drug policy research were fired due to a flawed and rushed investigation. The report said they did not deserve the personal, financial and professional harm they suffered.

Introducing the whistleblower protection legislation was among several recommendations Chalke made after reviewing the case.

In an introduction to the annual report Wednesday, Chalke says the law brought British Columbia up to speed with other provinces and territories.

“British Columbia joined virtually all other provinces, territories and Canada in adopting a legal framework that is designed to enhance transparency and accountability in the public service,” he says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2020.