Nunavut government missing its report deadlines, ledge document says

Looking to know what’s going inside the GN? Tabled documents in the legislature, seen here, provide one way for members of the public to learn what is going on. (FILE PHOTO)

More than two dozen reports from Government of Nunavut — according to its own laws — are now overdue.

These reports should already have been tabled in the territory’s Legislative Assembly, yet another document tabled Nov. 5 in the legislature shows.

This means that during this past sitting, the ministers responsible for the reports should have formally tabled them to make them part of the public record.

The document, called “Speaker’s List of Outstanding Statutory Tabling Requirements,” breaks down most of the outstanding reports by GN department.

You can find the longest list of outstanding reports within the justice department, where seven reports are overdue for tabling by Justice Minister Paul Okalik.

These include the 2013-14 and 2014-15 reports on the Family Abuse Intervention Act, the 2014 report on the Labour Standards Act and the 2014-15 Victims of Crime Act report.

Premier Peter Taptuna’s portfolio, the executive and intergovernmental affairs department, has four outstanding reports, including three annual reports from 2012 to 2015 required by the Statistics Act.

And the family services department, whose former minister Jeannie Ugyuk was ousted at the recent mid-term leadership review, has yet to file its 2014-15 report under the Child and Family Services Act and its 2014-15 report under the Collaboration for Poverty Reduction Act.

According to the list, eight other departments or government agencies had overdue reports as of Nov. 5, including:

• the 2012-13 and 2013-14 annual reports on Nunavut’s education system, required by the Education Act;

• the 2014-15 annual report on the management and direction of the public service, required by the Public Service Act;

• the 2014-15 annual report of the Qulliq Energy Corp., required by both the QEC Act and the Financial Administration Act; and,

• the 2012-13 and 2013-14 annual reports of efforts made to strengthen Inuit languages within the government, required by the Inuit Language Protection Act.

These laws require annual reports to be tabled in the house, usually at the first sitting after the end of each fiscal year.

And these laws include requirements to tabling reports in the legislature to promote the government’s accountability and transparency.

While those reports are required by law to be tabled for public access, there are no legal repercussions for government staff when reports are not tabled