Yukon government missed deadline to present annual financial report

The Yukon Legislative Assembly building in Whitehorse. (Chris Windeyer/CBC)

Documents were tabled several weeks after late-October deadline.

The Yukon government was late in filing its annual financial report, and is blaming it on new accounting practices and a lack of experienced staff.

According to the territorial government’s own laws, the public accounts are supposed to be filed by the end of October. This year, the government tabled its 2022–23 public accounts on Nov. 22 — several weeks late.

“That deadline really caused an awful lot of stress for the team,” Finance Minister Sandy Silver said.

“But they also equalled if not doubled their efforts on the other side of this, to make sure that they are prepared for the next round … and the public accounts that we’ll see this time next year.”

While the government isn’t facing any penalty for missing the deadline, staff from the office of the auditor general of Canada (OAG) said the delay puts their office behind schedule reviewing the Yukon’s books.

The OAG warned the government to address staffing issues in order to avoid future delays.

Public accounts are the government’s audited financial statements, along with financial information from government departments, Crown corporations and other bodies. The report for the prior fiscal year is handed annually to the OAG who’s responsible for verifying what the government actually spent, and what revenues it took in.

The government missed the deadline to submit its 2022-2023 financial statement by almost a month. The Yukon Legislative Assembly held a hearing about it on Friday. (Virginie Ann / CBC)

The Yukon Legislative Assembly’s standing committee on public accounts heard from the OAG on Friday at a first hearing on the matter, along with officials from the Department of Finance appearing as witnesses.

“The timely availability of the Yukon public accounts is key to ensuring that your committee and the Legislative Assembly have the information they need to hold the government to account for its use of public funds,” Normand Lanthier with the OAG said.

Lanthier noted that the delay appeared to be due to “staff turnover and significant difficulties in implementing new accounting standards” that includes more detailed work and disclosure, which increased the amount of labour.

Deputy minister of finance Jessica Schultz, also speaking in front of the committee on Friday, confirmed the reasons for the delay.

“The audit of the 2022-23 financial statements proved significantly more challenging and complex than previous years,” she said.

“Compounding the complexity of dealing with these issues was the number of new staff in critical positions across government … and many were experiencing their first year in government, let alone their first year of the public accounts process.”

Lack of preparation

The committee, however, questioned the government’s ability to adapt as the Department of Finance was initially made aware of these upcoming accounting changes in 2018.

“How come, if we knew that it was coming, that more work wasn’t done ahead of time for this last fiscal year?” NDP Leader Kate White, who sits on the committee, asked.

Floyd McCormick, the former clerk of the legislative assembly, said the reasons behind the delay are valid when put together.

“If you have a lot of changeover of staff, you know, sort of at the last minute or during the last fiscal year, then it doesn’t really matter that much whether or not you’ve been given five-years warning, if the people who are doing it have only showed up in the last year,” he said.

Whether it’s a big deal depends on whether or not it’s a one-off, or a recurring issue, McCormick added.

Silver, the finance minister, told CBC News the late submission doesn’t reflect on the financial state of the government.

“We are in a good healthy place. We have more revenues than we forecasted,” he said.

While the government received an qualified statement for being late, it also received an unqualified statement as far as the content of the public accounts. That means the public accounts fairly represent the spending of the government.

The Yukon government is reporting a $105-million surplus for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The standing committee on public accounts will hold a second hearing to go over the report itself.

Related stories from around the North :

Canada : Funding requests rejected as Yellowknife prepares for ‘tight and frugal’ city budget, CBC News

Sweden : Climate adaptation funding cut in budget in Sweden, Radio Sweden

Russia : Huge budget deficit is building up in Russia’s economy, The Independent Barents Observer

United States : In Alaska, Skagway’s economy depends on cruise tourism and little money is coming in, Alaska Public Media

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