Resolute mayor made “honest error,” court finds

A Nunavut judge says Aziz Kheraj, the mayor of Resolute Bay, made “an honest error” in judgment in the way he handled the hiring of a hamlet employee who ended up living in a hotel that Kheraj partly owns.

“Was it an honest error? I believe it was,” Justice Earl Johnson wrote in a 17-page written judgment issued last Thursday.

That means Kheraj will stay on as mayor of Resolute Bay.

“We’re happy with his decision,” Kheraj told Nunatsiaq News this week. “In my own mind, I did not feel that I was in a conflict of interest.”

Wayne Davidson, a former hamlet councillor, launched the court action in late December, after the Hamlet of Resolute Bay hired Richard Doucet, formerly of Cape Dorset, to replace Resolute’s outgoing SAO, Ralph Alexander.

The $52,000-a-year job was offered to Doucet last September, with no arrangements for housing assistance.

After receiving an offer of employment from the hamlet, Doucet contacted a hotel in Resolute Bay owned by the Tudjaat Co-op, and another local hotel, the South Camp Inn, in which Aziz Kheraj is a “significant minority shareholder.”

After a few days, Doucet decided to stay at the South Camp Inn, and agreed to pay a rate of $1,250 a month for room and board.

The Resolute Bay hamlet council, however, had not passed a bylaw authorizing Doucet’s hiring, as is required under Nunavut’s Hamlet’s Act.

“The arrival of Mr. Doucet shocked Mr. Davidson and some councillors because they thought a bylaw had to be passed before he assumed his duties,” Johnston wrote in his decision.

On Nov. 13, Davidson tried to rescind a motion the hamlet council passed earlier to hire Doucet, and made an allegation that Kheraj was in a conflict of interest.

On Dec. 5, when the hamlet council met to give second and third reading to the legally required SAO-hiring bylaw, Davidson demanded to be heard on the issue of Kheraj’s alleged conflict of interest, and then left the meeting saying “he did not recognize the authority of the mayor.”

Kheraj presided over two council meetings where the bylaw to hire Doucet was on the agenda. During those discussions, Kheraj did not declare a conflict of interest, but did not vote.

Davidson alleged in the complaint that he filed soon after with the Nunavut Court of Justice that this constituted a breach of Nunavut’s Conflict of Interest Act — on the grounds that Doucet was living in Kheraj’s hotel, and that Kheraj stood to gain financially from passage of the bylaw to hire Doucet.

But Johnston found that Kheraj was in a “technical breach” only.

“This evidence does not reveal any ulterior motives that Mr. Kheraj was trying to profit from his position of authority over Mr. Doucet,” Johnston said.

Johnston then dismissed Davidson’s application to have Kheraj removed as mayor.

Johnston also dismissed a second complaint. In it, Davidson alleged that Kheraj raised the hamlet’s snow removal rates to make it more attractive for people to hire Kheraj’s company to do snow removal in the future.

For his part, Davidson says he’s happy that Johnston found Kheraj had breached the Conflict of Interest Act, but he’s not happy Kheraj is still mayor.

He suggested that part of the problem may lie with the legislation, which does not deal with the “appearance” of conflict of interest.

“For Nunavut government employees, appearance of conflict of interest is an infraction. This law does not say that,” Davidson said.

Davidson also said he’s “astounded” by Johnson’s rejection of his second complaint, and that he’s now considering an appeal, if he can find the money to pay for it.