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KIMMIRUT/LAKE HARBOUR
South Baffin MLA Fred Schell is still waiting to hear the integrity breach allegations that led Premier Eva Aariak to strip him of his ministerial portfolios March 11. Integrity commissioner Norman Pickell is waiting, too.

South Baffin MLA Fred Schell lost his cabinet portfolios March 11. He still has not heard why, nor has Integrity Commissioner Norman Pickell, who is investigating. - NNSL file photo

"I understand it's coming, but I haven't received it yet," Pickell said of the formal request required to start an integrity investigation. "Under the (Integrity) Act, there are steps that have to be taken, a process set out under Section 36. There's a request in writing, an affadavit and so on, and no, I have not received that."

The person responsible for filing a request, cabinet secretary Daniel Vandermuelen, has spoken with Pickell by telephone, but Pickell requires notice in writing. Vandermuelen was on holidays until April 16 and unavailable to comment before the press deadline.

"They're working on the affadavit," Pickell said.

He said he last spoke with Schell April 10, "to let Mr. Schell know that I'm not just sitting here doing nothing with it. I just told him I don't have it, and when I do, he'll hear from me."

The timeline for providing the request for a review is open, but once the integrity commissioner receives a formal request that is not malicious and warrants an investigation, he has 90 days to produce a report.

"If it looks like a prima facie case (a matter appearing to be self-evident from the facts presented), I will be providing certain information to Mr. Schell, and asking for his response. As I'm doing that, that's when the 90 days starts running."

If it goes forward, this would be Pickell's fourth review. In 2008, Baker Lake MLA David Simailik was sanctioned for violating the act while minister of Economic Development and Transportation and minister of Finance; in 2009, Iqaluit West MLA Paul Okalik apologized for seeking campaign donations from deputy ministers he appointed while he was premier; and in 2011, the legislature rejected Pickell's report but fined Schell after he was found guilty of sending an "intimidating" email to a bureaucrat in Community and Government Services about a private business matter before he was a cabinet minister.

An extension to the 90-day review period can be granted, which is what happened with Schell's last investigation, Pickell said. However, he is conscious of the fact Schell's portfolios have been taken away, and that Schell would like answers sooner rather than later.

"That's why I've been contacting the cabinet secretary more than once since the premier removed his portfolios from him," he said.

However, Pickell's hands are tied until the request arrives.

"I expect I'll be getting an e-mail and/or a fax with the material, and I'll likely get a hard copy by mail," he said. "That's been the procedure that's been followed in the past. I'm as anxious to receive it as anybody else is in the sense that I could then contact Mr. Schell to let him know, here's what I've got, give me a response, which is what he did last year."

In the meantime, Schell sits officially as a minister without portfolio, and has retained a lawyer. He did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

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