N.S. auditor general to file police complaint against provincial Liberal Party

Nova Scotia's Auditor General Kim Adair is planning to file a formal complaint with the RCMP over what she suspects was an attempt by the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia to hide or delay disclosing an employee had misused party funds.

"During the later stages of readying this report in 2024, our office became aware of concerning information pertaining to the association's handling of the misuse of funds," noted Adair in her latest report, which was released Tuesday.

"The information reveals an indication the association sought to conceal and delay disclosing the misuse of funds until after the 2021 provincial election."

At a news conference on Tuesday, Adair declined to say how her office got that information or who provided it.

"Given that we are going to the RCMP, I don't want to jeopardize anything that is going to happen from this day forward," she told reporters.

"But as it stated [in the report] that there was information that came at the late stages in 2024, as we were writing the report, that made it evident, based on our evidence that we have, that there is, and there was an apparent concealment of the misuse of funds until after the 2021 provincial election."

Responding to Adair in an emailed statement on Tuesday afternoon, Joseph Khoury, past president of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party Association, said the allegations are "irresponsible and inaccurate." 

Khoury said the party responded to the loss of funds immediately, sought legal advice and hired a forensic investigator to examine party records, but that work took time.

"Any insinuation by the auditor general that this independent investigation conducted by Deloitte was purposely misrepresented as part of a political calculation is baseless and needlessly inflammatory," he said.

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill told reporters he agreed with Adair that the matter needed to be examined in greater detail and had already contacted police in response to one of her two recommendations.

"I certainly fully support the recommendations that the auditor general has," said Churchill. "I was first provided a brief and read this report on Feb. 13."

"The next day I wrote the RCMP myself, in line with recommendation number one, and urged them to look into this matter further, and certainly our doors will be open if they feel that that's necessary."

Churchill took over the Liberal party from Iain Rankin on July 9, 2022, following the party's stinging loss in the 2021 general election.

Although he has called in police, Churchill quickly tried to distance himself from the allegations of a coverup.