Ottawa reviews conflict complaint against NIC member

TODD PHILLIPS

Kenn Harper hasn’t yet been reappointed to the Nunavut Implementation Commission.

A federal ethics commissioner has been asked to review a conflict of interest complaint made against him.

“All of the commissioners have been reappointed except for Mr. Harper,” NIC chief commissioner John Amagoalik told reporters at a Dec. 23 news conference in Iqaluit.

The three-year terms of nine of the commission’s 10 members expired Dec. 10. Eight of those nine were given new order-in-council appointments that will expire soon after the territory of Nunavut is created April 1, 1999.

Harper said this week that he can’t comment on the issue.

Ottawa to handle issue

The commissioners had met in Winnipeg last month to talk about a complaint made against Harper by Iqaluit businessman Peter Baril.

“We looked at our policies and procedures, and based on that a resolution was passed asking Mr. Harper to step aside until the matter is dealt with,” Amagoalik said.

The commissioners also urged Amagoalik to ask Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin to look into the matter.

“It’s in their hands,” Amagoalik said. “The people who appointed Mr. Harper are the GNWT, so the GNWT and the minister’s office will have to agree on what to do.”

Amagoalik said he doesn’t expect that anyone from the commission will get involved in the investigation.

“I think the facts of the case are pretty clear. We don’t see the need for us to be involved in the discussion.”

The commission passed all of the information they had gathered to Irwin, he says.

Memo surfaces

Peter Baril first asked the commission to investigate his conflict of interest complaint against Harper in May 1995.

Baril said that by taking part in the commission’s discussions on the future telecommunications needs of the Nunavut government, Harper was in a conflict of interest since at the time he was also involved in an Iqaluit-based company providing Internet access services.

At that time, the commission found that Harper was not in a conflict, but he was asked not to take part in any future NIC discussions on communications.

This latest conflict complaint stems from a memo that was sent anonymously to Baril, Nunatsiaq News and other northern media.

On the memo are handwritten comments addressed to the attention of Mike Stilwell and Pat Guinan, two of Harper’s former business partners in an Internet service company called Nunavut Communications Ltd.

Handwritten comments printed in capital letters on the two-page memo read as follows:

“You see, there are advantages to being on N.I.C. I will discuss this with Tammi with a view to her contacting NTI’s Iqaluit office with information on our company.

Regards, Kenn.”

After that statement, is the following;

“Pat – don’t call anybody on this. I got this through NIC. I don’t want to feed the ‘conflict’ fires. Kenn.”

Both Nunavut Communications Ltd. and Network North Communications no longer provide Internet services.

On Dec. 5, 1996 Network North Communications filed a claim in territorial court against Nunavut Communications Ltd. and former operations manager Tammi Porter for an amount of $4,631.

The Nunavut Implementation Commission is a federally-appointed body set up to advise Ottawa, the GNWT, and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on the make up and design of the Nunavut government.