“telus and the provincial government agreed that the number of agents answering calls may need to be adjusted as the program evolved, which is reflected in the agreement,” the company said in a written statement. it did not specify how many of the 100 additional agents were assigned to the vancouver coastal health region nor did it disclose who paid for the extra agents.
the information and privacy commissioner’s review of the redaction of the cost of those agreements is expected to be completed by the end of october.
back in march, b.c.’s minister of health placed the blame on telus for what he called “work failures.” adrian dix said, “they did not meet their contractual obligation.”
nevertheless, earlier this month, dix appointed entwistle as a “special adviser” to the board that is charged with solving the problems with b.c.’s ambulance service, after it was unable to meet the need for ambulances during the heat dome that left hundreds dead last month.
dix defended the move in a written statement, which praised telus for “unprecedented service delivery,” by scheduling more than two million vaccination appointments through its call centres.
“under mr. entwistle’s leadership, telus has provided exemplary pandemic support to british columbians,” said the statement. it said telus assigned 1,200 call centre agent when public demand for appointments peaked and, in total, 1,800 telus employees were diverted from their regular work to taking vaccine calls.