Are Nunavut’s MLAs following the Integrity Act?

The Honourable J. Edward Richard is the new Integrity Commissioner of Nunavut, having been appointed Sept. 9, 2013 for a term of five years. (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Nunavut’s Integrity Commissioner’s 2013-14 report shows the office received no requests for formal reviews over the last year.

The report is the first released by the territory’s new integrity commissioner, Ted Richard, and covers the period between Sept. 9, 2013, when he started as commissioner, until Sept. 8, 2014.

Any MLA or member of the public, except for senior government managers and employees of the legislative assembly, can request that the Integrity Commissioner review an alleged contravention of the Integrity Act by an MLA.

Only one complaint came into Richard’s office during last year’s territorial election campaign, he reported, although the complainant never followed through.

“This bodes well for a culture of integrity and public confidence in our democratically elected fourth legislative assembly,” Richard wrote.

The act itself establishes a system of standards and accountability to ensure its members work to serve the common good.

And since the Integrity Act was enacted by Nunavut’s very first legislative assembly in 2001, only six formal reviews have been conducted by the commissioner’s office.

They resulted in sanctions imposed by the legislative assembly to a sitting member.

The most recent saw former South Baffin MLA and cabinet member Fred Schell stripped of his portfolios for six contraventions of the Integrity Act.

To date, Richard said all of Nunavut’s sitting MLAs have filed disclosure statements — which outlines any elected member’s financial interests — meeting their obligations under the act.

Richard said he has been contacted for advice on a number of matters — not a surprise, he said, given the number of newly-elected members following the Oct. 2013 election.

Overall, Richard received 42 individual inquiries over the last year, most looking for information on how to handle extra remuneration or gifts, or questions about what constitutes a conflict of interest.

“I am pleased to report that, without exception, all of the members accepted and followed the advice and recommendations,” Richard wrote in his report.

One of those recommendations included advice to Cambridge Bay MLA Keith Peterson, currently Nunavut’s finance minister, to end his blind trust agreement — the only agreement in place among Nunavut’s sitting members.

As publicly-elected figures, MLAs may be advised to put their assets into blind trusts, managed by a third party, to prevent any conflicts of interest.

Peterson had a blind trust agreement dating back to a previous term as MLA to manage about a dozen assets linked to his investment portfolio.

But when Richard met with Peterson after he was re-elected in October 2013, Richard felt the blind trust agreement was no longer a requirement.

“The nature of those assets had changed,” Richard said, declining to specify what they are. “My assessment was that he no longer needed to continue that blind trust.”

The agreement would have been dissolved over the last few months, Richard added.

In his disclosure statement, dated Jan. 24, 2014, Peterson also declared that his spouse, Sandra Peterson, owns common shares in Aurizon Investments Ltd.

Section 17 of the integrity act says that a minister “shall not hold or trade in securities or commodities,” although there are exceptions, depending on the type of investment and if an asset or liability is worth less than $10,000.

As of October 2014, Richard said his office is also looking at a handful of people alleged to have contravened Nunavut’s Election Act following the 2013 territorial election.

In the vast majority of those cases, those allegations stem from a failure by election candidates to file their campaign expenses, he said.

Richard said his office has contacted three former candidates and their financial agent to get a compliance agreement signed.

When that’s done, the candidate must submit their paperwork, pay a fine set by the integrity commissioner and issue a formal apology.

Otherwise, they may face prosecution.

Richard’s report also detailed a recent request by the legislative assembly’s management and services board for his office to conduct periodic reviews of the disclosure statements filed by deputy ministers — something initially requested by the premier.

Richard said the process is not yet in place.

This story was corrected from an earlier version that said MLA Keith Peterson had common shares in the Cambridge Bay-based company Aurizon Investments Ltd, when, in fact, he does not. Nunatsiaq News apologizes for the error.