Money talks: who spent how much on Nunavut’s 2013 election campaign

Elections Nunavut staff process voting results Oct. 28 in Rankin Inlet. (FILE PHOTO)

Contributions to the campaigns of Nunavut’s MLA-hopefuls ranged anywhere from about $16,000 to zilch during the territory’s 2013 general election for the Nunavut Legislative Assembly, financial returns posted on the Elections Nunavut website reveal.

The financial campaign returns for all candidates who filed them are public documents, available here on the Elections Nunavut website.

Any candidate who fails to file a financial return can be penalized under the Nunavut Elections Act

The biggest spender among elected MLAs was Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Paul Okalik — now justice minister — who took in $14,435 in campaign contributions leading up to the Oct. 28 election.

That amounts to much less than the $27,800 that Nunavut’s former premier raised in the territory’s 2008 territorial election.

In last year’s campaign, Okalik’s biggest single personal donor Doug Workman, who is also president of the Nunavut Employees Union, contributed $2,500, along with $1,500 from Ooloota Mattiusi, Workman’s wife.

The Nunavut Employees Union Holding Corp. donated $1,000 to Okalik’s campaign.

Okalik’s other major contributions included a $2,500 donation from Baker Lake-based Nunavut Purchasing and Supplies, and a $2,000 donation from Iqaluit’s Lawlor Mechanical.

Okalik, who contributed $500 of his own money, spent all but $544 of his campaign donations, and donated the leftover money to the Nunavut Literacy Council.

Workman and the NEU Holding Corp. also donated $1,000 each to the campaign of Leesee Papatsie, one of Okalik’s opponents in Iqaluit-Sinaa, who finished second

In comparison, Iqaluit-Sinaa candidate Natsiq Kango, who finished last, raised only $600 in donations: $500 from Tumiit Development Corp. and $100 from Arctic Circle Construction and Development.

No campaign finance statement from Iqaluit-Sinaa candidate Solomon Awa appears on the Elections Nunavut website.

Elsewhere in Iqaluit, first-time MLA Pat Angnakak raised $8,621 through a variety of personal donations, including a $1,000 contribution from the NEU Holding Corp.

The NEU Holding Corp. also contributed to the campaign of Iqaluit-Manirajak MLA Monica Ell, who raised $8,220 in donations, including $1,700 of her own money.

Iqaluit-Manirajak candidate Paulie Sammukok, who finished last, spent only $6, which he contributed himself. Third-place finisher Lewis Lehman raised $681.40 and a financial return from second-place finisher Mikidjuk Akavak does not appear on the Elections Nunavut website.

And in Iqaluit-Tasiluk, rookie MLA George Hickes received $9,580 in donations, mainly from individual donors in Iqaluit.

The only other candidate to raise more than Paul Okalik’s campaign was Clara Evalik, a first-time candidate in Cambridge Bay. Evalik filed $16,600 in campaign contributions, although $13,374 of that consisted of her own funds.

But Evalik finished third with only 82 votes, well behind finance minister Keith Peterson, who contributed $5628.88 of the $8,108.53 that he raised for his campaign. Second-place finisher Fred Pedersen raised $2,700 in contributions.

Campaign spending generally got smaller outside of Iqaluit and other major centres.

In Rankin Inlet North-Chesterfield Inlet, Tom Sammurtok, now minister of Community and Government Services, raised $5,287. Almost half of that came from a Chesterfield Inlet Development Corp. donation, while another $1,000 came from the NEU Holding Corp.

After the election, Sammurtok donated $1,586 of unused funds back to the Pulaarvik Frienship Centre.

In Rankin Inlet South, Alexander Sammurtok, who eventually became MLA, raised only $142.07 in contributions in the Oct. 28, 2013 campaign.

A handful of MLAs spent no money and reported to Elections Nunavut that they received no contributions, including Uqqummiut MLA Samuel Nugingaq and Aggu MLA Paul Quassa, who is now education minister.

Two MLAs were also acclaimed in their ridings in 2013 and did not require campaign funds: Netsilik MLA Jeannie Ugyuk and Kugluktuk MLA Peter Taptuna, now Nunavut premier.

The deadline for completing and filing financial returns — which are mandatory — for the Oct. 28, 2013 election was 60 days after election day.

No business, group or individual may contribute more than $2,500 to an individual campaign. Donors may qualify for a refundable tax credit of up to $500.

But Nunavut’s territorial election law makes an exception for the territory’s high air transportation costs. A contribution of transportation services may exceed $2,500.

Candidates may not collect or spend more than $30,000.

And candidates found in breach of the Elections Act can be fined $5,000, jailed for up to one year and barred from running in a territorial election for five years.