Lori Idlout regrets expenses made while she was NDP MP

Nunavut MP Lori Idlout agreed she made an error in judgement after a report released Wednesday concluded that expenses she claimed in 2024 and 2025 constituted a conflict of interest.

The purchases made by her member’s office constituted an error in judgement, Canada’s Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein found after his investigation into the incident, but he didn’t impose any sanctions against her, noting her errors were made in “good faith.”

The expenses included four occasions when her staff bought gifts from Carvings Nunavut, a retail art gallery where she is the sole shareholder and director. 

As well, the report looks into accommodations the MP booked at a bed and breakfast in Igloolik owned by her spouse Allan Mullin. 

“As soon as these were brought to my attention, I immediately reimbursed all these claimed expenses, demonstrating a true desire to fully rectify these errors,” the MP said in a public statement following the report’s publication. 

“I did not consider that these purchases made for legitimate parliamentary purposes would further private interests, as I receive no income from the businesses in question,” she added. “I have since learned from this experience.”

The purchases were all made prior to her crossing the floor to join the Liberals, when she was an NDP MP.

“Idlout reimbursed all of the claimed expenses immediately after the concerns were brought to her attention,” the commissioner wrote in his report. “In my view, this demonstrated a true desire on Ms. Idlout’s part to fully rectify each of her past non-compliances.”

Finckenstein came to that conclusion after Idlout testified that, though she owns Carvings Nunavut, she does not financially benefit from its operations, nor does she take part in its day to day operations.

Idlout has not received any income from the business, which buys and sells Inuit art such as carvings and prints, since before she was elected, according to the commissioner.

She testified that any surplus generated from the sale of art after staff salaries, rent, bills and other operation costs goes toward purchasing more art. 

The largest expenditure from Carvings Nunavut involved $1,380 in sculptures, cards, tote bags, hand-crafted keychains and zipper pulls, gifted to First Nations leaders, elders and other speakers at the NDP’s national caucus meeting in British Columbia, in September 2025.

The three other gifts were all under $200. They were given to Rebecca Chartrand, minister of northern and Arctic affairs; Greg Fergus, former speaker of the House of Commons, during visits to Iqaluit; and to staff at the Kivalliq Long-Term Care Elders Centre, to celebrate the completion of the project in Rankin Inlet.  

As for the travel expenses involving her spouse’s business, Al’s B&B in Igloolik, Finckenstein noted the stay was disclosed right after a trip in March 2025, and the MP’s choice resulted from a lack of other available accommodations. 

Idlout and two staffers had initially hoped to book rooms at a hotel in Sanirajak, a small community about 70 kilometres from Igloolik where Idlout was hosting an event, but the hotel was fully booked. With the hotel in Igloolik similarly full, the group, left with few options, opted to stay at Al’s B&B.

While mentioning he understands that accommodations in Nunavut hamlets are limited, the commissioner noted Idlout could have consulted his office for advice in the matter before making a claim. 

This is not the first time that the MP has taken steps to remove herself from a perceived conflict of interest. 

In July, Idlout distanced herself from her stake in an Indigenous management consultancy firm by putting it in a trust — a legal arrangement that can hold an asset while a politician is in public office, which prevents them from making income from the asset or selling it. The company, NVision Insight Group, has received $1.5 million in federal contracts since Idlout’s election five years ago.