Nunavut MP Lori Idlout broke federal conflict-of-interest rules by charging her office budget for purchases at businesses she and her spouse own, Canada’s ethics commissioner concluded. However, he stopped short of recommending any penalty.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein said Idlout contravened Section 8 of the Code, which bars MPs from acting in ways that further their own private interests, or those of a family member, while carrying out parliamentary duties.
The itemized purchases include four separate transactions at Carvings Nunavut, a business Idlout owns, totaling $1,756. The single biggest, at $1,380, covered cards, bags, keychains, and carved pieces she picked up in August 2025 to hand out to First Nations leaders, elders, and speakers during an NDP caucus gathering. Three smaller purchases followed. A $150 wall hanging went to a long-term care centre, a $150 lapel pin to then-Speaker Greg Fergus, and roughly $76 in small items to Northern and Arctic Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand. She also charged the House for rentals at her husband’s bed and breakfast.
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Idlout made the purchases while sitting as a New Democrat MP. She crossed the floor to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governing Liberals in March.
Read: NDP MP Lori Idlout Defects to Liberals, Narrowing Gap to Majority
Von Finckenstein called the violations “errors of judgement made in good faith,” saying Idlout hadn’t realized the purchases would further her or her spouse’s private interests and had repaid the House of Commons as soon as the issue came to light.
Idlout told CBC News she takes the finding seriously, saying at the time she “did not consider that these purchases… would further private interests,” since she draws no income from either business.
