QIA chief electoral officer clarifies her interpretation of election rules

Thank you for covering the story on the QIA Election 2014 but I have to make some clarifications to your article.

I did not say there were no QIA ballots at the TI [Tungasuvvingat Inuit] Centre in Ottawa and in no way did I say certain polling stations were intended for specific beneficiaries. In answering your question about the differences in the voting especially between NTI and QIA, I explained why a person who moved to Ottawa to work would lose their residency in the Qikiqtani region and not be able to vote for QIA as clarified in the QIA Election Regulations on residency but eligible to vote for NTI.

Furthermore, QIA By-Laws state a member has to be resident in Qikiqtani for the 12 preceding months before election date.

Residency rules also say one does not lose residency if away for temporary reasons, such as a student or a medical patient.

I also did not say the ballot boxes were different between TI and Larga. I did say there would be many voters at Larga who could vote by proxy for their community director in their communities as they have not lost their residency to vote due to being away for temporary reason.

On the matter of Election Regulations, there is no confusion. The version I worked with were approved by resolution in June 2014. These and other QIA operational policies and procedures do not need further approval or need to be activated by the By-Laws nor do they need to be registered with the Societies Registry.

The By-Laws approved at the last AGM were submitted to the Societies Registry and registered. There is no discrepancy between the old 1997 regulations and the new By-Laws affecting elections.

Even if we worked with the old By-Laws, nothing would have changed in how I made rulings. You have confused the statement I made regarding By-Laws of 1997 with the election regulations of June 2014. These are two different documents.

As for the eligibility of an employee running in this election, I already made a ruling, and not the lawyer, and this was based on previous elections and therefore a precedent had been set.

Section 3.2(2) that you referred to means if an employee is running, they cannot stay on as an employee but be on unpaid leave. This is further clarified in the Human Resource policy and the Conflict of Interest policy. I asked before I made the ruling if the leave for unpaid leave was done and all was in order.

If anyone has any questions, they are free to contact me for clarifications.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell
Chief Returning Officer
QIA Elections 2014

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