Lori Idlout regrets expenses made while she was NDP MP
MP Lori Idlout says she accepts the findings of an ethics report which concluded she engaged in conflict of interest
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, seen in a file photo, says she regrets various purchases her office filed over 2024 and 2025, saying it was a lapse in judgement. (File photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout agreed she made an error in judgement after a report released Wednesday concluded that expenses she claimed in 2024 and 2025 constituted a conflict of interest.
The purchases made by her member’s office constituted an error in judgement, Canada’s Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein found after his investigation into the incident, but he didn’t impose any sanctions against her, noting her errors were made in “good faith.”
The expenses included four occasions when her staff bought gifts from Carvings Nunavut, a retail art gallery where she is the sole shareholder and director.
As well, the report looks into accommodations the MP booked at a bed and breakfast in Igloolik owned by her spouse Allan Mullin.
“As soon as these were brought to my attention, I immediately reimbursed all these claimed expenses, demonstrating a true desire to fully rectify these errors,” the MP said in a public statement following the report’s publication.
“I did not consider that these purchases made for legitimate parliamentary purposes would further private interests, as I receive no income from the businesses in question,” she added. “I have since learned from this experience.”
The purchases were all made prior to her crossing the floor to join the Liberals, when she was an NDP MP.
“Idlout reimbursed all of the claimed expenses immediately after the concerns were brought to her attention,” the commissioner wrote in his report. “In my view, this demonstrated a true desire on Ms. Idlout’s part to fully rectify each of her past non-compliances.”
Finckenstein came to that conclusion after Idlout testified that, though she owns Carvings Nunavut, she does not financially benefit from its operations, nor does she take part in its day to day operations.
Idlout has not received any income from the business, which buys and sells Inuit art such as carvings and prints, since before she was elected, according to the commissioner.
She testified that any surplus generated from the sale of art after staff salaries, rent, bills and other operation costs goes toward purchasing more art.
The largest expenditure from Carvings Nunavut involved $1,380 in sculptures, cards, tote bags, hand-crafted keychains and zipper pulls, gifted to First Nations leaders, elders and other speakers at the NDP’s national caucus meeting in British Columbia, in September 2025.
The three other gifts were all under $200. They were given to Rebecca Chartrand, minister of northern and Arctic affairs; Greg Fergus, former speaker of the House of Commons, during visits to Iqaluit; and to staff at the Kivalliq Long-Term Care Elders Centre, to celebrate the completion of the project in Rankin Inlet.
As for the travel expenses involving her spouse’s business, Al’s B&B in Igloolik, Finckenstein noted the stay was disclosed right after a trip in March 2025, and the MP’s choice resulted from a lack of other available accommodations.
Idlout and two staffers had initially hoped to book rooms at a hotel in Sanirajak, a small community about 70 kilometres from Igloolik where Idlout was hosting an event, but the hotel was fully booked. With the hotel in Igloolik similarly full, the group, left with few options, opted to stay at Al’s B&B.
While mentioning he understands that accommodations in Nunavut hamlets are limited, the commissioner noted Idlout could have consulted his office for advice in the matter before making a claim.
This is not the first time that the MP has taken steps to remove herself from a perceived conflict of interest.
In July, Idlout distanced herself from her stake in an Indigenous management consultancy firm by putting it in a trust — a legal arrangement that can hold an asset while a politician is in public office, which prevents them from making income from the asset or selling it. The company, NVision Insight Group, has received $1.5 million in federal contracts since Idlout’s election five years ago.
And the band played “ believe it if you like” .
Crickets here from the usual crowd that passes for Nunavut’s intelligentsia.
I guess the glaring contrast between the presumed Inuk social champion and the apparent mercantile behavior has everyone mentally glitched.
The cognitive dissonance must be doubly bad for those Iqaluit Ottawa watchers who couldn’t dream of Canada’s savior – Carney – stooping to welcoming an unethical character to his ranks.
Let me snap you back to reality.
Nunavut needs the Liberals and the Liberals obviously need a new Nunavut rep.
For the sake of your party and territory, step down now.
Bring on a by-election so, if we want, we can actually get a dyed red Liberal MP for our territory.
These are errors in judgement that should probably have been obvious, but they don’t glare at me like so much of the corruption in the world today.
Still, clutch your pearls if it makes you feel better, superior perhaps… grandstand a little, insist on a resignation. I get it. Clout calls.
I accept your challenge.
Anyone who thinks we are going red in a by-election really doesn’t understand the Nunavut electorate. The Iqaluit bubble has blinded all kinds of otherwise competent political observers.
We are staying Orange. If you want to FAFO, be my guest.
What struck me from the CBC report, was the 150 dollar lapel pin, ant the 76 dollar fridge magnet. But as always in Nunavut the rich get richer, and when they get caught colouring outside the rules, they always have an excuse.
So she reimbursed them right away when the subject was mentioned to her a few years later. There is no way she didn’t know that her family were benefitting from the sales.
This woman has gained hundreds of thousands while in office doing exactly this since she became our NDP. If she truly didn’t want to benefit from it she wouldn’t have charged for the carvings or staying at their own place.
Exactly! The trust completely out the window. I hope someone TRUSTWORTHY is considering and planning to run because Nunavut needs that person.
Not a fan of Ms. Idlout. but at least she paid the money back. That certainly isn’t always the case with her colleagues.
The thing here is that it doesn’t matter what colour you support. Red, Blue, Orange or other. The thing that should stand out here and bother EVERYONE, is that Mrs. Idlout knew. She always knew what she was doing was wrong. If anyone thinks otherwise, they are just denying what almost all Nunavummiut know. They know that there are some very specific individuals who cloak themselves in everything Inuit and use that to enrich themselves. It doesn’t matter if it’s a politician at the Federal or Territorial level, or one of the Inuit orgs Leaders or one of the Development Corps Leaders. There are those that have been taking from Nunavummiut, the Territory and from Canadians and enriching themselves for a very long, long time.
Why is this allowed to happen? Simple. Lack of consequences. Example Mrs. Idlout. Other examples; grants, funding programs, housing, education, health care, etc, etc. Where did all the money go? It doesn’t matter because she and others who have been doing this will not face any real consequences? Do you think she will do the right thing and resign? NEVER going to happen! Simply because there is no pressure to do so. No common voices demanding accountability. It is what has plagued Nunavut for the last 25+ years and will continue to do so until people start to demand accountability.
Until then, just add Mrs. Idlout’s name to the growing list of those who will continue to take advantage of Nunavummiut’s and the nauseatingly lack of accountability that permeates the Territory..
OK all you trolls,and keyboard warriors, I am not a Lori fan at all, but she keeps winning elections and her supporters stand behind her, Democracy at its best,3 more years, and she will win again if she runs for liberals.
She regrets getting caught, period.