Driven by events, legislature creates legal fees policy for MLAs

The NWT legislature has published a policy setting out when public funds will be expected to cover outside legal costs associated with individual MLAs.

The new legal fees policy was tabled at the end of October.

In some situations, the policy states, the legislature’s law clerk may tell MLAs they (or their staff) should be represented by outside counsel rather than in-house legal services. When that happens, the MLA can ask for legal fees to be reimbursed.

Any request for reimbursement has to be approved by the board of management, which is currently made up of speaker Shane Thompson, cabinet members Caroline Wawzonek and Caitlin Cleveland, and regular MLAs Robert Hawkins and Richard Edjericon.

To qualify for reimbursement:

• the MLA making the request can’t be the one starting the legal proceedings;
• the fees must be associated with “the discharge of parliamentary functions”; and
• the board of management must decide the reimbursement is appropriate.

An MLA must give up the money if the allegations against them are substantiated.

The board can grant exceptions “if it determines the reimbursement of legal fees is appropriate and in the public interest.”

The law clerk has the authority to approve requests worth up to $10,000 at a time. Anything above that must go to the board.

MLAs can have lawyers’ costs reimbursed of up to $449 per hour (for the most experienced legal counsel). A few other restrictions apply based on certain circumstances, though the board has broad leeway to grant exceptions or agree to extra costs if it sees fit.

Commissioner’s decision was factor

A spokesperson for the Legislative Assembly said the new policy “ties together” guidelines that were previously found in three different documents.

“The policy was established to provide clarity as there had been questions about the provision of legal advice and services where a member is subject to legal proceedings arising out of the discharge of parliamentary duties,” the spokesperson stated.

They also acknowledged a decision by the NWT’s integrity commissioner earlier this year was “a driving factor.”

Commissioner David Phillip Jones told the legislature it should feel obliged to cover the legal costs of a nurse who accused Edjericon, the Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA, of waging a campaign against her in Fort Resolution – and thereby breaking the MLAs’ code of conduct. The commissioner had ruled in the nurse’s favour.

The new policy sets in stone that the legislature will cover costs of a successful complainant like the nurse, provided the fees are in line with a scale set out in the document.

An annual report will document how much money is spent on outside legal fees associated with this policy. The first full report is expected next year.

Cabin Radio asked the legislature for a breakdown of outside legal fees by individual MLA for the 19th and 20th assemblies, covering the governments of Caroline Cochrane and RJ Simpson.

The legislature did not provide this but did provide overall tallies.

Legal fees for MLAs in the 19th Assembly totalled $139,808.31, the legislature stated, and legal fees to date in the 20th Assembly have reached $80,905.29.

The new policy applies only to the legal fees incurred by individual MLAs, their staff or complainants. It doesn’t cover broader costs of some matters.

For example, the legislature ended up with an $800,000 bill in 2021 after holding a public inquiry into the actions of then-Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA Steve Norn.