Qulliq boss faces allegations over work on property

Qulliq Energy Corp. president Peter Mackey is facing allegations that he used employees tocarry out work on his personal property.

South Baffin MLA Fred Schell said he wants to know who paid for landscaping and construction work that he claimed was done on Mackey's property by employees of Qulliq Energy, Nunavut's public power utility.

Schell has alleged that he noticed improvements on the Iqaluit duplex this past winter.

"So I quizzed some people that I knew would know about it from the power [corporation], and they admitted to having worked there," Schell told CBC News on Tuesday.

"Some of them had brought forth pictures with the actual work being done."

Schell tabled photocopies of those photographs in the Nunavut legislature on June 7.

"What was done on site was some landscaping and creating a retaining wall. There was approximately 16 hydro poles used, four or five steel pilings," Schell told the legislative assembly at the time.

"There was a QEC boom truck used. Six employees were paid to do this work."

'Not my place,' says Mackey

Shortly after the photographs were tabled, Mackey told CBC News, "The simple answer is it's not my place, and I really can't say more about this."

CBC News has found out through Iqaluitmunicipal officials that the duplex in question, House 4129, is owned by Mackey and Grant Penney, another high-ranking Qulliq Energy official.

Documents obtained from the Nunavut government's land registry show that Mackey and Penney both lease the land at House 4129.

But Lorne Kusugak, the minister responsible for Qulliq Energy, stated in a written response to Schell that "for the record this is not the QEC president's house."

Kusugak said Qulliq Energy staff did drop off some poles at a house, but he did not identify which house it was. It took 30 to 45 minutes for crews to drop off the poles and secure them, he added.

A Qulliq Energy spokesman told CBC News that Qulliq Energy often donates decommissioned power poles to individuals or groups, but he added that none of those poles are on the president's property.

4th ex-employee lawsuit filed

Chris Cousins, a former Qulliq Energy longtime maintenance supervisor, said he believes the work that was done on the Iqaluit property must have cost a lot in time and materials.

"Let's say there's 23 poles that's two or three days' work," Cousins told CBC News on Tuesday.

Cousins, who had worked for Qulliq Energy since 1995,claims he was effectively fired earlier this year. He filed a lawsuit against Qulliq Energy in the Nunavut Court of Justice last week, seeking at least $560,000 for breach of contract and constructive dismissal.

In his statement of claim, Cousins said he was "harassed, discriminated against, and subjected to significant and unilaterally imposed changes to the terms and conditions of his employment" during his final months on the job.

Cousins claims that he was suspended without pay, without cause or consent, from Jan. 17 to Feb. 25, and was ordered to attend an anger management training program, before demoting him to a non-supervisory position and reducing his salary.

According tothe statement of claim, Cousins said he believes Qulliq Energy took action against him "because of his persistence in highlighting QEC's ongoing failure" to comply with Article 23 of the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement, which calls for increased Inuit participation in the territorial government workforce.

Three other former employeeshavefiled their own lawsuitsagainst Qulliq Energy in the past year, citing wrongful dismissal, constructive dismissal, breach of contract, and mismanagement. The utility hasdenied the allegations it faces.