Legislative hearings monitor public spending at Nunavut’s Crown corporations

Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes also chairs the standing committee on Oversight of Government Operations and Public Accounts, which is hosting hearings in Iqaluit this week. (FILE PHOTO)

Legislative hearings looking into how Nunavut’s Crown agencies spent their funding are underway at the territorial legislature this week.

Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit, the Nunavut agency that provides advice on how the Government of Nunavut can implement traditional knowledge into its policy, is making its first-ever appearance before MLAs Sept. 23.

It’s the first body to appear this week before the standing committee on Oversight of Government Operations and Public Accounts, whose role it is to monitor budgets and departmental and corporate business plans.

“The majority of questions and responses so far [today] touch on how the government is implementing actions recommended by Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit, and the apparent lack of action,” said Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA and committee chair George Hickes.

“So we’re hearing about how the GN prioritizes those recommendations.”

The scope of the committee’s oversight changed to include IQK last year, following a motion by Quttiktuq MLA Isaac Shooyook.

During the hearings, which run through until Sept. 29, the committee will hear from the Nunavut Development Corp. — another first for oversight committee hearings.

The committee will also hear from the Nunavut Business Credit Corp., a lending agency that last appeared at hearings in 2008, at which point the organization was struggling to clean up from financial mismanagement.

Then there are the Nunavut agencies who tend to make more regular appearances, like the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, scheduled to appear Sept. 28.

Following the hearings, the oversight committee is tasked with drafting a report with its own recommendations for the GN, Hickes said, to be tabled at the fall sitting of the assembly in October.

From that point, the GN has 120 days to respond, he added.