The Ontario Coroners Association says coroners are frustrated with a new computer program that has increased workloads and lost data, and are concerned about growing reliance on nurses for investigations and a system that places all coroners on call.
The province's chief coroner has accepted responsibility for the years-long wait for better pay and admitted the troubles with the new computer system, but pledged better days ahead with "significant reforms" underway. Huyer, who became chief coroner in 2013, says he initially chose to hold any changes until after the end of an inquiry into serial killer Elizabeth Wettlaufer, who killed eight long-term care residents in southwestern Ontario. That probe reviewed the coroner's work.
If the coroners cannot achieve full unionization, they hope to come up with something akin to the Ontario Medical Association, which represents doctors and can negotiate with the government on their behalf.Dr. Dirk Huyer, Ontario's Chief Coroner, said he understands why coroners are trying to unionize, noting they were told for years that their pay was going to increase and working conditions would improve.As of Oct.
"Most coroners have other jobs — their practices, their clinics — and this will require them to give up that work in order to be on call," she says."We have a significant number of cases that are being done without physicians attending to scenes," he says. "We don't like that."