New MPI leadership stands in long shadow of old

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This article was published 13/03/2024 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Satvir Jatana is walking a very fine line.

The newly appointed chief executive officer of Manitoba Public Insurance has been asked to clean up the mess left by predecessor Eric Herbelin by eliminating a toxic culture, taming a wayward $290-million technology project and mending fences with rank-and-file employees after a prolonged and bitter strike last year.

If that’s not enough, Jatana has to do all that while all observers — politicians, news media and the general public — know she was part of the executive team that allowed things to go so wrong for so long.

In an interview, Jatana acknowledged her role on Herbelin’s executive team may be a source of concern. However, she said she plans to chart her own course at the helm of MPI, with an emphasis on greater transparency and accountability.

Jatana also made a point of repeatedly noting she is a lifelong Manitoban and Winnipegger — a nod to previous concerns about the number of MPI executive team members under Herbelin who commuted from other provinces.

“I’m a Manitoban at heart,” Jatana said. “This is my home… and I’m committed to doing what MPI deserves in terms of leadership and in my approach, generally, is to be transparent.

“In my approach and how I conduct business, I want to be transparent, I want to be collaborative. I want to be inclusive and I truly want to live the values of being a leader for a Crown corporation.”

As for having a front-row seat to the recent years of dysfunction, Jatana initially declined to comment. However, when pressed about some of the more controversial decisions, Jatana made it clear while executive-level employees could advise the chief executive officer about what to do, the CEO and MPI board always got the final say.

Jatana’s suggestion she really had no control over Herbelin is largely supported by the findings of a government-ordered review released in January.

It found, under Herbelin’s watch, MPI was burdened by a confused executive management structure, which had too many layers and too many people that suffered from a lack of information about what it is they did for the Crown auto insurer.

The environment Herbelin created produced alarming bits of mismanagement.

In 2021, in contravention of an agreement with the Public Utilities Board, Herbelin diverted $125 million from Autopac revenues to cover cost overruns for Project Nova — the troubled online portal for insurance and registration services — and to pay for rising costs at Driver and Vehicle Licensing. (Operated by MPI but an asset of government, DVL costs are supposed to be covered by general revenues.)

Despite a government directive to freeze pay levels for all MPI employees, Herbelin awarded merit bonuses to himself and members of the executive team. In the last year of his tenure, Herbelin spent more than three months away from Winnipeg on largely unexplained “business travel.”

Jatana said, as a member of Herbelin’s executive team, her role was to advise and then carry out directives from the CEO and board. In the case of Herbelin, Jatana implied she did push back against some of his plans and her advice was ignored.

“I can tell you that I always gave my best advice to the CEO,” she said.

“Now being part of the corporation for nine years, I have a good understanding of what’s acceptable and what’s not… I have always given my best advice. And as you know, with best advice, it’s always up to someone whether they want to take it or not.”

As for taking Autopac revenues to pay for non-Autopac expenses, Jatana said she has already committed internally and to government that will not occur again in the future.

Even with a commitment to greater transparency and commitment to honour board and government directives, Jatana still has a $290-million elephant to deal with every time she walks into an office at MPI or government.

Project Nova is already 200 per cent over its original budget and years behind schedule.

However, Jatana said, despite disruptions over the last year (Herbelin’s firing, the resignation of key technology executives), Nova is on track to stay within its updated $290-million budget.

MPI has already has spent approximately $140 million of its total allocation, she said, and to keep within its budget cap, hard decisions will have to be made about the scope of the project.

The deadline for completion is another matter.

“The timeline (has) definitely have slipped… in the last year or so,” Jatana said.

When you look at where MPI was last year at this time, and where it needs to go in the near future, you can see Jatana’s challenge is enormous.

The new CEO has to overhaul the entire culture of MPI, while also completing an enormously costly and complex technology project.

And she has to do that while convincing onlookers that while she may be the solution now, she wasn’t really the problem back then.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com