Now show us your books, Valcourt tells Nunavut Planning Commission
NPC chair tells Ottawa “we have nothing to hide” in financial audit
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt, left, took the advice of Premier Peter Taptuna, right, and plans to audit the Nunavut Planning Commission this summer. (FILE PHOTO)
Updated 2:15 p.m., July 15
The federal Aboriginal affairs minister delivered a double whammy to the Nunavut Planning Commission this week, first cutting them out of a mining approval process and then sending auditors in to look at their books.
A July 14 letter from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada to Sharon Ehaloak, the planning commission’s executive director, said Ottawa will be undertaking a “financial review” of the board’s affairs.
“The objective of this work is to provide an independent and objective opinion that AANDC funding allocated to the Nunavut Planning Commission has been expended in accordance with the terms and conditions of our funding agreement,” says a letter from AANDC’s Anne Scotton, chief audit and evaluation executive.
Scotton said the department is sending in the accounting firm, KPMG, to conduct the audit, which is expected to be completed this summer.
“The results of this work, in the form of a summary report, may be published on the departmental website.”
The chair of the NPC’s board of directors, Hunter Tootoo, said July 15 that the review is unnecessary in his opinion, but that the board will comply.
“I take this as above and beyond [what’s required of the NPC],” said Tootoo said.
“We submit our work plan and budget on an annual basis. And they approve it every year.
“But if they want to come in and do it all over again, they can knock their socks off. That’s their prerogative. We have nothing to hide.”
He added he “can’t speculate” as to why Ottawa wants to review the NPC’s finances.
Earlier this week, Valcourt also announced that he would exempt a new Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. proposal from the North Baffin Regional Land Use Plan, effectively overturning a previous decision by the planning commission that would have stalled that mining proposal.
Instead, Valcourt took the project proposal out of the NPC’s hands and gave it to the Nunavut Impact Review Board instead, for an environmental review.
Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna, in a May 8 letter to Valcourt, encouraged just such a move and also suggested the minister consider auditing the planning commission.
It appears that Valcourt has taken the premier’s advice.
Tootoo, said at the time that the organization gets audited annually and that its statements are available for review.
As a result of questions regarding NPC funding, the board uploaded a summary of their audited financial statements from 2007 to 2013.
“In each of these fiscal years, the auditors expressed an unqualified audit opinion,” the summary says.
According to that summary document, the organization appears to be carrying no debt.
The summary shows that the NPC’s budget from AANDC fluctuated between $3.4 million and $4 million between 2007 and 2013.
Of that money, salaries, wages and benefits took up the largest single expense item, going from a low of $1.3 million in 2007 to a high of $2.2 million in 2012.
The NPC’s website lists nine staff members including an executive director, her executive assistant, a finance clerk, planners, specialists and an interpreter-translator.
The next largest expense appears to be travel and accommodation which, in 2013, ate up $1 million of the NPC’s budget.
In fact, if you add up salaries plus travel for 2013, that comes to nearly $3 million or nearly 80 per cent of the AANDC’s funding.
Some other significant expenses include:
• professional fees: $356,356,
• legal fees: $252,177; and,
• board honoraria: $102,542.
The board consists of a chair and vice chair, four commissioners and two Makivik Corp. alternate members.
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