N.W.T. Senator Nick Sibbeston 'disappointed' expenses rejected, will keep better records

Northwest Territories Senator Nick Sibbeston says he's disappointed an arbitrator rejected nearly $27,000 in expenses that he claimed as Senate business, but says the decision is making him more conscientious about keeping records.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie oversaw the arbitration process of 14 senators' expenses, after the auditor general flagged their claims.

The auditor general challenged $50,102 in claims from Sibbeston. In Binnie's report released Monday he found that $23,171 in Sibbeston's expenses were justified, but ordered the senator to repay $26,924 in ineligible claims.

"I'm disappointed that more of the expenses were not accepted by the retired judge," Sibbeston told The Trailbreaker's Loren McGinnis on Tuesday.

Many of the rejected claims were expenses for travel in the N.W.T. and southern Canada. For many of the trips, Binnie found that Sibbeston could not provide any specifics or documentation to prove that he was on Senate business.

"I was able to provide some documentation but obviously I didn't satisfy him sufficiently," Sibbeston said.

"He really insisted on full documentation."

Two disputed expense claims were for trips to Yellowknife in January 2013 one for eight days, the other for 11. Sibbeston said on Tuesday that he had letters from about five people who could vouch for meeting the senator on business. He said he also met with the N.W.T. Economic Opportunities Strategy Advisory Panel for an entire afternoon.

"But he didn't give me credit for even that," Sibbeston said.

"I think he almost wanted you to prove to him, and show him that you met [with people/organizations]every day that you were there."

Trips to Victoria, Quebec City

Sibbeston was also dinged for a trip to Victoria, B.C., in which he met with artist Robert Burke to talk about his paintings that depictCanada's residential schools.

Binnie denied an expense from the "primarily personal" trip saying that the meeting "hardly justifies" the claim.

"Whatever incremental Senate business was added in conversations with Mr. Burke did not add cost to the visit," Binnie said in the report.

Sibbeston defended the expense, saying that residential schools is a "relevant topic" in the N.W.T., and it comes up a lot in his work as a senator.

Asked how the meeting with Burke constituted Senate business, Sibbeston said he spoke to "hundreds of people" about the artwork, including former residential school students.

In regards to a $1,472 trip to Quebec City to support the N.W.T. ice-sculpture team, Sibbeston says it also was a legitimate Senate expense.

Binnie denied the expense claim, saying that Sibbeston was there to cheer on his son, who was a member of the team.

"There again, the judge held a very standard thinking that just because my son was involved in that competition that I should not have claimed expenses as a senator," Sibbeston said.

"I considered it relevant for the North. He was part of a group of people representing the Northwest Territories.

"But the judge thinks, 'OK. You had a relative, you had a son there, and so we can't accept that.' That's his standard and obviously his is what counts."

Better record keeping

Sibbeston says he has learned lessons from this experience, saying that he's already started documenting trips.

"Any time now I go to a community, I go through Yellowknife, I record the people I met with," he said. "I've become much more conscious of keeping good records.

"If anything, it's taught me that, don't be so Northern and just leave it for common sense. Provide what the South wants, provide what the rules now provide for."

Sibbeston says the arbitration process has also made him more aware of what constitutes Senate business.

"Without question, I'm going to be much more conscious to see whether the meetings that I go to, any travel I do, can pass the test," he said.

"It has made me much more conscientious and careful to be sure that I can justify any trip that I make."

Sibbeston has 30 days to pay back the ineligible expenses. He says he'll repay the full amount before the deadline.