Four MLAs to repay legal costs
GNWT covered cost to file paperwork with court after eight missed deadline or filed incomplete election expense reports
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Monday, April 11, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Four MLAs have told News/North they will repay legal costs billed to the public because they missed the deadline or filed incomplete election financial reports earlier this year.
That means $2,101 is expected to be repaid of the $6,124 cost.
When these expenses were revealed, Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart was the first of the eight who missed the deadline to say he'd repay his share, which came to $500.
News/North reached out to the other seven, asking if they'd follow suit. Mackenzie Delta MLA Frederick Blake Jr. was the second to confirm he'd pay back his $600 share.
"I will be paying back the legal fees," he wrote in an e-mail April 5. "As for why, I believe it is the right thing to do."
Later that day, cabinet minister and Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Alfred Moses also said he'd repay his $345 cost.
Speaker and Monfwi MLA Jackson Lafferty said he's also repaying $656.
News/North did not hear from Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli, Hay River South MLA Wally Schumann, Nunakput MLA Herbert Nakimayak or Sahtu MLA Daniel McNeely before press time.
The question about repayment was initially triggered by a requirement in the Elections and Plebiscites Act that requires candidates file the reports about expenses 60 days after the election. Almost a third of the candidates missed the deadline according to Elections NWT, including eight elected to the legislative assembly. Those included the speaker, two cabinet ministers and five regular MLAs.
The legislation sets out MLAs cannot get deadline extensions, while those who didn't get elected can get an extension.
Missing the deadline triggered a requirement the eight file paperwork with the NWT Supreme Court to be able to take their seats and vote in February.
The clerk of the assembly decided that because the eight had no ill intent - some had tried to meet the deadline but the mailed reports failed to arrive on time - the law clerk of the legislative assembly would prepare the required documents.
This cost the public $6,124, according to legislative assembly clerk Tim Mercer. In an e-mail, he stated general legal advice to assembly clerk cost $1,318 while creating a template for the paperwork to be filed with the court cost $800. The remainder was split up among MLAs.
Mercer has previously said his decision to have legislative assembly lawyers do the work for the MLAs was based on a two-stage test.
First, five of the MLAs who missed the deadline had mailed complete reports more than a week in advance but the reports had not arrived in time. The other three made their errors "in good faith," said Mercer. The Speaker, for example, was acclaimed and didn't believe he had to file the election expense information because he didn't have any. For Testart, the person responsible for some of the information was in hospital with medical issues in the time leading up to the deadline.
The second test was related to timing - the legislative assembly was set to resume and eight of 19 MLAs could have been forced to stay away.
"Our primary concern was to make sure they could sit and vote in the House," said Mercer.
To speed up the process, he said it was decided to handle it as a group effort by assembly lawyers. Mercer noted MLAs were given the chance to retain their own lawyer if they wanted.
The MLAs were required to pay fines of $250 each and court filing fees of $150 each out of their own pocket. They also forfeited a Elections NWT nomination deposit of $200.
Testart stated in a press release last month he intends to introduce amendments to the legislation to give the chief electoral officer discretion to allow extensions for MLAs to file the reports that caused the issue.
