Fired N.B. health network CEO awarded record-breaking $2M in unjust dismissal case | Globalnews.ca

Dr. John Dornan, the former CEO of Horizon Health Network in New Brunswick, has been awarded more than $2 million in compensation, plus pension contributions and benefits, after he was fired just a few months into his five-year mandate.

According to Dornan’s lawyers, this is the largest employment compensation award in New Brunswick’s history. It also includes $200,000 in aggravated damages.

Premier Blaine Higgs announced Dornan’s firing in July 2022, following the death of a patient in an emergency department waiting room in Fredericton.

Higgs also shuffled out the health minister and wiped the boards of both Horizon and Vitalité health networks.

In a release, Dornan said he was a “political scapegoat.”

“Nobody should have their career and livelihood taken away like that,” he said.

“I’ve had a cloud hanging over my head. I hope this decision goes some way towards restoring my reputation and allowing me to resume my career.”

In the release, Kelly VanBuskirk, Dornan’s lawyer in New Brunswick, said the award accurately reflected the losses suffered by Dornan, who had spent more than 30 years building his reputation as a physician and health-care executive.

“He had first-hand knowledge of the problems in the system and a plan to fix them. He was a CEO that doctors had confidence in,” said VanBuskirk. “In the span of an hour, Dr. Dornan’s reputation was shredded at the altar of someone’s political agenda.”

VanBuskirk said Dornan was treated in “bad faith,” as he was “unceremoniously fired in the parking lot” shortly before the July 15 press conference announcing the health-care shakeups.

“Employers have a duty of good faith and fair dealing when terminating someone’s employment,” he said.

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Dornan was named CEO of Horizon Health Network in March 2022. He had been serving as interim CEO since August 2021, replacing Karen McGrath after her retirement.

During the news conference where Donan’s dismissal was announced, Higgs placed the blame for the struggling health-care system on management.

“It’s not up to me to run the health-care authorities but it is up to me to ensure that the right people are in the position to do so, and it starts at the top,” he said.

“If we don’t get better management results in our hospitals, we won’t get better health care.”

Howard Levitt, a Toronto-based lawyer, said Dornan was publicly blamed for many of the current problems in the province’s health-care system, including the recent death of a patient.

“There is no other way to say it — the premier threw John Dornan under the bus in a public, disingenuous and callous manner, just minutes after he fired him,” he said.

Global News has contacted the province for comment and has requested interviews with Dornan and his lawyers.

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