Open letter to NTI executive candidates

NUNAVUMMIUT MAKITAGUNARNINGIT
Iqaluit-Baker Lake

Peter Irniq made a good point on CBC news this past Monday morning — it’s time to open the books on the salaries of the NTI executive positions.

He said that “the salaries of the individual executive members at NTI should be transparent and have the books opened before the election. That is what I would want to see.”

Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit — an independent, non-governmental organization — agrees, and would like to make other suggestions to facilitate transparency and accountability at NTI.

Simply put, when it comes to transparency, NTI board members should be treated like MLAs and NTI executive members should be treated like cabinet ministers.

Under the Government of Nunavut’s Integrity Act, each MLA must declare his or her debt, other than mortgages; all financial assets over a specified value; all sources of income; and all gifts as received.

These records are updated annually. There is an official called the Integrity Commissioner who oversees this reporting process and investigates complaints.

We appreciate that NTI is a private corporation rather than a public government, but NTI makes decisions that are every bit as important as those made by Nunavut cabinet members.

Proof of this is the current effort to open Nunavut to the nuclear industry — it was an NTI board policy that got this started, while the GN has yet to develop a credible policy on uranium mining.

Land claim beneficiaries have a right to know that all elected officials making decisions of this importance have not been unduly influenced by commercial interests.

Which brings us to our second suggestion: that NTI’s “Elections Contribution, Expense, And Reporting Rules” should be changed to stop the process of having the governance coordinator destroy the declarations of financial contributions to candidates six months after the election reporting is wrapped up.

Why is this important?

We know that a uranium mining company made a financial contribution to one of the successful candidates in the most recent election of the Legislative Assembly.

The contribution was perfectly legal, was properly reported, and the candidate’s declaration is available on the Elections Nunavut website. It’s not illegal for wannabe MLAs to take campaign donations from the nuclear industry (or the tobacco industry, or the asbestos industry, or any other industry that some people find morally offensive), but it will be a matter of permanent public record if they do so.

Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit is curious whether uranium mining companies made similar financial contributions to persons running for NTI executive positions in past years, but as those records have been destroyed Nunavummiut will never know.

And what about gifts, such as free airline tickets, once politicians are in office?

We believe that when it comes to controversial issues such as opening Nunavut to the nuclear industry, land claim beneficiaries have a right to know whether uranium mining companies have made donations to election campaigns or gifts to NTI executive members after they have been elected.

If MLAs have to publicly declare such donations and gifts, NTI Executive members should have to declare them as well — and their declarations should be archived rather than destroyed.

Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit asks all candidates for NTI president and vice presidents positions to comment on this open letter, and will circulate all responses we receive.