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Nunavut MP Lori Idlout says she has reimbursed the House of Commons for items bought from her own shop “in error.”
Idlout is the sole proprietor of the gallery Carvings Nunavut, which sells Inuit-made carvings and artwork. Publicly available expenditure reports show that on four occasions in 2025, Idlout expensed items to the House of Commons purchased from the business she owns.
Members of the Parliament are not allowed to benefit from expenses or contracts charged to the House of Commons.
The total value of the purchases was $1,756. Two $150 purchases were made in January 2025, a $76 purchase was made on June 25 and a $1,380.00 purchase was made on Aug. 27. All were listed as “gifts given as a matter of protocol.”
In a statement sent to CBC News following questions about these expenditures, Idlout wrote they were for Indigenous artwork used in her capacity as an MP.
“They were submitted in error and I have subsequently reimbursed the House of Commons for the total value,” she wrote.
Idlout crossed the floor from the NDP and joined the Liberal caucus last week, marking the fourth defection to the Carney Liberals in recent months.
She has been in office since 2021, and said she made the decision to join the governing party in part because she wanted the government to “make decisions with Nunavut, not only about Nunavut.”
Her floor-crossing leaves the Liberals on the cusp of holding a razor-thin majority in the House of Commons. If they win two out of three upcoming byelections, they will cross the threshold into majority territory — and two of the three ridings are considered safe Liberal seats.
The expenses were made during her time as an NDP MP.
“Ms. Idlout has — now that she’s been caught — admitted to doing what every member of Parliament knows or ought to know they can’t do,” said Michael Barrett, the Conservative ethics critic.
“This speaks to very poor judgment.”
Barrett has written to the chair of the Board of Internal Economy, which is responsible for establishing bylaws and policies relating to MPs’ expenditures, to raise concerns about these expenses.
He said there are other questions Idlout should have to answer.
“Who did she give these gifts to, right at the time of a federal election, where she won her district by a couple of a dozen votes?” he said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the ethics commissioner confirmed that MPs are not allowed to further their private interests in any way while performing their public duties.
They did not say whether the commissioner would launch an inquiry into the issue, saying the office can do so at the behest of another MP, when directed by the House or based on information from various sources including media reports.
In 2021, former ethics commissioner Mario Dion found that former Liberal MP Yasmin Ratansi violated Parliament’s conflict of interest code by hiring her sister to work in her constituency office.
