External firm to examine staff and volunteer mistreatment by NDP, Notley says

Alberta's Opposition leader apologized to delegates during a speech to her party's provincial council on Sunday in Red Deer, saying complaints about treatment of staff and volunteers will be investigated by an external firm.

Rachel Notley also promised that an independent body will review the NDP's human resources policies to ensure they have "robust policies and proper codes of conduct in place."

She addedthat all of the party's executive staff, including herself, will take additional workplace training.

Notley told reporters last week that she and the party executive would recommend finding an independent body with expertise in harassment complaints, and the matter would be discussed by NDP leadership this weekend.

At the time, she was responding to an internal letter leaked to media and written three months ago by 15 New Democrat constituency presidents and regional vice-presidents to Notley and the party executive.

The letter writers called for an independent third-party review of what they called a pattern of mistreatment of volunteers.