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The Newfoundland and Labrador government says it has contacted the private company responsible for a new report meant to guide the province into the future that was found to contain false quotes.
Online newspaper The Independent reported over the weekend that the province's health department recently released a health workforce plan developed by consulting firm Deloitte that contained four false citations.
The situation comes months after the Provincial Formation Agreement was called into question following Radio-Canada reported this. it contained at least 15 references to non-existent journal articles and documents.
In a statement to CBC News on Monday, Ministry of Health communications director Brian Scott said Deloitte was contacted and asked to confirm the accuracy of the report's quotes and literature review.
“Deloitte has since acknowledged that the four quotes below are incorrect; however, they support the findings and conclusions of the report,” Scott wrote.
“Deloitte has committed to promptly carrying out a full… review of all citations and will be required to report its findings to the government.”
Scott said that once the company completes its review, they can “assess how serious the problem is” and “take appropriate steps.”
The 526-page document, commissioned and released by the former Liberal government in May, was Health workforce plan for 10 years fill gaps in the workforce, with a focus on retaining and recruiting healthcare professionals.
CBC News asked Deloitte for an interview.
The province's Department of Health and Community Services paid Deloitte Management Services LP $1,598,485 for the plan, according to an access to information request received and circulated by activist Matt Barter.
The payments were split into eight payments over a two-year period, with the first dated March 2023 and the last March 2025.
Calls for refunds
NDP Leader Jim Dinn calls the situation “troubling” because two reports on important issues such as education and health care had problems and the province paid money for them.
He wants the province to return some of the money it paid for the report, pointing to a situation where Deloitte partially reimbursed the Australian government for a report that found content generated by artificial intelligence.
“For me, I would have little confidence in this report and would definitely be seeking redress,” Dinn told Radio-Canada.
Previously MHA Bernard Davis – then Liberal education minister – defended the contents of the Education Agreement, saying the fake quotes were disappointing, but did not affect the reliability of the plan.
Co-chairs Karen Goodnough and Anne Burke, professors of education at Memorial University, said their month of work for delivery The education agreement is still in effect.
“We don’t know where the mistakes were made, we can only assume that it happened with the government. We say we submitted a report at the end of March and anything that didn't look kosher, we provided feedback,” Goodnough told CBC Radio. Signal in September.
In a statement to the NLTA, which was later relayed to PC Radio-Canada, current Prime Minister Tony Wakeham called the situation “embarrassing.”
“Our first step will be to review the Education Agreement in detail and discuss its content directly with the authors. We will determine what is true and what is not,” he said.
Sonia Pritchett, a spokeswoman for Opposition Leader John Hogan, declined to answer questions from CBC about the report contracted by the Liberals.
“Any reports with inaccurate quotes related to the use of AI should be reviewed and addressed,” she told CBC News via email.
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