Manitoba to Assess Link After Current Former Employees Share Allegations of Mismanagement

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The province of Manitoba is hiring a third party to assess the Link, an organization that helps youth and families in crisis, after employees raised allegations of mismanagement and issues with the board.

In December 2022, the Instagram account @darksideofthelink was created by current and former employees who used the account to allege everything from institutional racism, to a lack of Indigenous senior executives or board members, to questionable financial activity. and harmful leadership practices.

On January 6, they sent a letter to Minister for Families Rochelle Squires and Premier Heather Stefanson asking for a review of the organization.

“We strongly encourage a team of investigators to come and interview each employee anonymously one-on-one, including the large number of employees who have recently left the organization,” the letter states.

The group wants current CEO Kerri Irvin-Ross, COO Diane Ward and the entire board to step down and be replaced by Indigenous staff, since the majority of The Link’s customers are Indigenous families.

Minister confirms review

Families Minister Rochelle Squires confirmed she had received the letter and was conducting a review of the agency, which receives $13 million a year from the province, making it one of of Manitoba’s largest youth organizations.

“We greatly appreciate the work that Link does, they provide services to many vulnerable children and youth in the province of Manitoba, and many families depend on the services they provide,” Minister of Families Rochelle Squires said during of an interview.

“We are certainly aware that there have been anonymous allegations that have been made and concerns raised that we feel it is in the best interest for us to conduct a third-party assessment.”

The province said it wants to have an assessor in place this week and have the assessment completed by the end of March.

The employee group raised concerns about a provincial review, since Irvin-Ross, the current CEO, was once the NDP’s families minister.

“Obviously there are similar experiences and we’ve crossed paths a number of times, but that has no bearing on what’s going on here,” Squires said.

Kerri Irvin-Ross was previously NDP MP for Fort Richmond as well as Minister of Families. Now as CEO of Link, she is responding to allegations from current and former employees. (Radio Canada)

Link’s management said it was open to the third-party probe.

“On behalf of the 10,000 young people who rely on us, we will fully cooperate and collaborate with the assessors and follow any recommendations presented to us as a path to the continued strengthening of our service agency,” CEO Kerri Irvin-Ross wrote. in a statement to CBC.

“Throughout the year, there are a number of internal and external reviews focused on programming and finances.”

Irvin-Ross confirmed that as an organization accredited by the provincial Department of Families, “all accredited programs are reviewed annually, including home inspections, program results, incident reports and communication logs”.

Allegations of racism

The group behind the Instagram accounts said management’s actions show a lack of awareness of how their actions are not supporting the staff and Indigenous youth who come to The Link.

Many CBC employees said it needed an overhaul of the mostly non-Indigenous management and board of directors.

“For an organization that serves young people who are over 80% Indigenous youth, the organization should be Indigenous led and managed,” said a second current employee whose identity is protected by CBC, as they fear to lose their jobs for speaking out.

“There needs to be a huge overhaul.”

According to employees CBC spoke to, there are currently no Indigenous employees in senior management, and the few Indigenous employees in supervisory positions are underpaid.

One allegation highlighted in the letter to the province was that on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, managers and directors had the day off, but Indigenous frontline staff were forced to work.

CBC also spoke to an Indigenous youth who said he thought Kerri Irvin-Ross tapped her life story for a photo op. This sentiment was reiterated in the letter to the province, which said that other young people had experienced the same thing.

High staff turnover alleged

The Link employs more than 300 people, and the group of employees behind the Instagram account allege that since September 2021, more than 150 employees have left the organization.

They say many positions go unfilled or are filled by unqualified people.

“What’s going on is just a constant revolving door of unskilled and untrained staff failing to meet the complex needs of these young people,” said another staffer whom CBC agreed not to name because he fears his job is in jeopardy.

CBC spoke to five former or current employees, all from different departments within the organization.

CEO Kerri Irvin-Ross denied that there are too many vacancies at The Link.

“We are fully operational serving more than 10,000 families a year with very few vacancies in our staffing component, which is filled with qualified and dedicated individuals,” Irvin-Ross wrote in a statement.

Questionable financial decisions

Most of Link’s current and former employees told CBC that while there was no illegal use of funds, many of the decisions appeared to run counter to the organization’s intent. to help families in need.

In particular, staff referred to a recent refurbishment of the Link office which they considered excessive and unnecessary.

“What I would say is there’s really bad judgment and really bad decisions being made, and I think the $28,000 on the couches is a classic example of that,” a former employee said.

“We have other funds, private donations, other foundations, so it’s easy to say that we didn’t spend the $28,000 with provincial money, which would be a violation of the agreement of funding.”

CBC asked CEO Kerri Irvin-Ross about the money spent on the remodel and received no comment on it.

Along with accusations of mismanagement of funds, staff say program directors are not allowed to see their budgets, making it difficult for them to manage their teams.

“No other director has access to his budget, he is not allowed to see the budget line by line, he is not allowed to know how much money he has, what his budget is or how much money he has left,” said a current employee.

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