About the Integrity Act

The Integrity Act was enacted by the First Legislative Assembly of Nunavut in 2001. It affirms in law the commitment of the members of the Legislature to always serve the common good and to act with integrity. It establishes a system of standards and accountability for fulfilling that commitment.

The founding principles of the Integrity Act are as follows:

(a) integrity is the first and highest duty of elected office;
(b) the people of Nunavut are entitled to expect those they choose to govern them to perform their public duties and arrange their private affairs in a way that promotes public confidence in each member’s integrity, that maintains the Legislative Assembly’s dignity and that justifies the respect in which society holds the Legislative Assembly and its members;
(c) the members of the Legislative Assembly are committed, in reconciling their public duties and private interests, to honour that expectation with openness, objectivity and impartiality, and to be accountable for so doing; and
(d) the Legislative Assembly can serve the people of Nunavut most effectively if its members come from a spectrum of occupations and continue to participate actively in the economic and social life of the community.

integrity and ethical behaviour are at the heart of public confidence in a democratically elected government. Nunavummiut expect their MLAs to act with openness, objectivity and impartiality. The MLA’s duty to act in the public interest supersedes the MLA’s private interest.

The Integrity Act describes the MLA’s ethical obligations in these general terms:

(a) perform his or her duties of office and arrange his or her private affairs in such a manner as to maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of the member;
(b) refrain from accepting any remuneration, gift or benefit, the acceptance of which might erode public confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity or impartiality of the member, and in all other respects act in a manner that will bear the closest public scrutiny;
(c) arrange his or her private affairs in conformity with the provisions of the Act and act generally to prevent any conflict of interest from arising; and
(d) make all reasonable efforts to resolve any conflict of interest that may arise in favour of the public interest.

In addition, the Act imposes certain specific obligations and prohibitions upon each elected MLA, e.g.:

• obligation to periodically file a Public Disclosure Statement, describing the member’s assets, liabilities, sources of income, etc.
• prohibition against receipt of “additional” remunerations, gifts or benefits connected to the performance of the member’s duties of office
• prohibition against contracting with the GN or any of its public agencies
• avoiding, and declaring, any conflict of interest
• prohibition against improper use of insider information
• prohibition against exercising improper influence
• prohibition against improper lobbying

The foregoing is a brief summarization of some of the sections of the Integrity Act. For the authoritative text, the reader should, of course, refer to the statute itself. A current consolidation of the Integrity Act may be downloaded from this website in PDF format.