ORNGE: The Star investigation that broke the story
By Kevin Donovan
In a clandestine meeting at an airport hotel, investigative reporter Kevin Donovan is alerted that there might be problems at ORNGE.
From mysterious sources to leaked reports and from intensive interviews to dogged analysis of financial reports, Donovan slowly pieces together the stunning story of a public agency out of control and of a government that took its eye off the ball.
Culminating in the dismissal or resignation of top executives and board members, new protocols to protect public safety, a police investigation and public hearings in 2012, this story reveals how crucial determined journalism is in our busy, complex society. In this riveting account of the Star investigation that shone a spotlight on Ontario’s troubled air ambulance service, Kevin recounts his three-year quest to uncover just what was going on at ORNGE.
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By Kevin Donovan
In a clandestine meeting at an airport hotel, investigative reporter Kevin Donovan is alerted that there might be problems at ORNGE.
From mysterious sources to leaked reports and from intensive interviews to dogged analysis of financial reports, Donovan slowly pieces together the stunning story of a public agency out of control and of a government that took its eye off the ball.
Culminating in the dismissal or resignation of top executives and board members, new protocols to protect public safety, a police investigation and public hearings in 2012, this story reveals how crucial determined journalism is in our busy, complex society. In this riveting account of the Star investigation that shone a spotlight on Ontario’s troubled air ambulance service, Kevin recounts his three-year quest to uncover just what was going on at ORNGE.
When you subscribe to Star Dispatches, you'll receive new eRead titles, for only $1/week. That's only $1 per week, with a minimum subscription period of 1 month, to explore news and features from a new and unique perspective. Single copies of Star Dispatches eReads can be purchased for $2.99 at starstore.ca or itunes.ca/stardispatches
Excerpt:
ORNGE: The Star investigation that broke the story
Bang! My truck jerked to a stop. The roof carrier. I had forgotten the hard-shell Thule fastened up top. Running late at the parking garage at Pearson International Airport, where I was to meet a ragtag group of air ambulance operators who had just flown in. I got out. Running really late now. The Thule was collapsed, jammed tight against the cement bulkhead, just past the automated parking arm. The carrier was borrowed from friends. Not good. I managed to back up, scribbled a note and left my vehicle out of the way. Sort of.
Days like this are common for reporters. Meeting people and hearing their stories. Checking out a news tip is like a first date. You get excited, a bit nervous, and you never know if the story will catch fire, how long it will take, or if you are wasting your time. In the rented boardroom at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, a group of men sat, probably wondering why they could arrive promptly from far-flung places in northern Ontario while a reporter driving 30 minutes from downtown Toronto could be so bloody late.
Bob Mackie of Thunder Airlines made introductions and I opened a notepad. Each of the men in the room represented an air carrier, a mid-sized Ontario company that had part of its fleet kitted out as air ambulances. They had once been clients of the Ontario government, but now ORNGE dispatched and paid them — less and less as each year went by, prompting this meeting.
“Our problem is ORNGE,” Mackie said. “ORNGE is using public dollars to buy a fleet of airplanes and helicopters and put us out of business.”
ORNGE was the provincial air ambulance service. The taxpayer-funded agency moved emergency patients by helicopter to trauma centres and by airplane between hospitals, typically flying people from smaller hospitals in the north to larger centres in the south.
The men in the room were on edge. Nobody wanted to get caught with a reporter. Over three hours they explained how the ambitious plan of a former emergency room doctor named Chris Mazza was taking away a big part of their livelihood. The word was that ORNGE, set up as a non-profit to co-ordinate dispatches, had created a string of companies to make money at taxpayers’ expense. “If Mazza hears we are talking, he will cut us out completely,” one man said.
Mackie had not just picked me at random out of a reporters’ phone book. Sixteen years before, I had done an investigation on the predecessor of ORNGE. Those stories revealed Ontario government mismanagement, corruption and, most important, serious safety problems. People at the provincial Health Ministry were fired or demoted as a result, coroner inquests were held and a government probe recommended widespread changes. I vaguely remembered Mazza from the 1990s. He had been on the periphery as an emergency doctor at Sunnybrook, the “base hospital” for the old air ambulance dispatch system. Mazza had an interest in flight medicine; he had flown as a medic on some calls and developed a plan. The men in the boardroom told me that Mazza, working with then Liberal health minister George Smitherman in 2005, had spun together a brand new organization. Now, the oddly named ORNGE claimed it was transporting the sick and injured both safely and economically.
“The problem is,” Mackie said, “the government and people of Ontario are not getting the full story. ORNGE is starting to have patient safety issues. Talk to medics. They will help. Talk to people in the Health Ministry. Mazza’s plans are starting to cost you and me as taxpayers a bundle.” The Thunder Airlines president handed me some background information as I got up to leave, my notebook crammed with tips, gossip and the suspicion of pilots and owners. “This could be a big story.”
Out in the airport parking garage, I studied both situations: first, how to find out if ORNGE had gone off the rails. Second, and of more immediate concern, how to back my Toyota Highlander down the narrow loop of a parking ramp and onto a busy airport expressway going the opposite direction. The driving job took five minutes. ORNGE would take considerably longer.
Days like this are common for reporters. Meeting people and hearing their stories. Checking out a news tip is like a first date. You get excited, a bit nervous, and you never know if the story will catch fire, how long it will take, or if you are wasting your time. In the rented boardroom at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, a group of men sat, probably wondering why they could arrive promptly from far-flung places in northern Ontario while a reporter driving 30 minutes from downtown Toronto could be so bloody late.
Bob Mackie of Thunder Airlines made introductions and I opened a notepad. Each of the men in the room represented an air carrier, a mid-sized Ontario company that had part of its fleet kitted out as air ambulances. They had once been clients of the Ontario government, but now ORNGE dispatched and paid them — less and less as each year went by, prompting this meeting.
“Our problem is ORNGE,” Mackie said. “ORNGE is using public dollars to buy a fleet of airplanes and helicopters and put us out of business.”
ORNGE was the provincial air ambulance service. The taxpayer-funded agency moved emergency patients by helicopter to trauma centres and by airplane between hospitals, typically flying people from smaller hospitals in the north to larger centres in the south.
The men in the room were on edge. Nobody wanted to get caught with a reporter. Over three hours they explained how the ambitious plan of a former emergency room doctor named Chris Mazza was taking away a big part of their livelihood. The word was that ORNGE, set up as a non-profit to co-ordinate dispatches, had created a string of companies to make money at taxpayers’ expense. “If Mazza hears we are talking, he will cut us out completely,” one man said.
Mackie had not just picked me at random out of a reporters’ phone book. Sixteen years before, I had done an investigation on the predecessor of ORNGE. Those stories revealed Ontario government mismanagement, corruption and, most important, serious safety problems. People at the provincial Health Ministry were fired or demoted as a result, coroner inquests were held and a government probe recommended widespread changes. I vaguely remembered Mazza from the 1990s. He had been on the periphery as an emergency doctor at Sunnybrook, the “base hospital” for the old air ambulance dispatch system. Mazza had an interest in flight medicine; he had flown as a medic on some calls and developed a plan. The men in the boardroom told me that Mazza, working with then Liberal health minister George Smitherman in 2005, had spun together a brand new organization. Now, the oddly named ORNGE claimed it was transporting the sick and injured both safely and economically.
“The problem is,” Mackie said, “the government and people of Ontario are not getting the full story. ORNGE is starting to have patient safety issues. Talk to medics. They will help. Talk to people in the Health Ministry. Mazza’s plans are starting to cost you and me as taxpayers a bundle.” The Thunder Airlines president handed me some background information as I got up to leave, my notebook crammed with tips, gossip and the suspicion of pilots and owners. “This could be a big story.”
Out in the airport parking garage, I studied both situations: first, how to find out if ORNGE had gone off the rails. Second, and of more immediate concern, how to back my Toyota Highlander down the narrow loop of a parking ramp and onto a busy airport expressway going the opposite direction. The driving job took five minutes. ORNGE would take considerably longer.
