Auditor general halts audit of Yukon's nominee program, citing RCMP investigation

Canada's auditor general has put its audit of the Yukon's nominee programs on hold, citing an ongoing RCMPinvestigation involving the department that oversees those programs.

Ina letter last week to MLA Currie Dixon, chair of the territory's standing committee on public accounts, deputy auditor general Andrew Hayes sayshis office had originally planned to present its performance audit report on the Yukon Nominee Program and Yukon Business Nominee Programnext fall.

Now, he says, furtherauditwork is being indefinitely postponed "out of respect for any ongoing investigations that are being conducted by the RCMP."

Last June, RCMPexecuted a search warrant for information heldat the territory'sDepartment of Economic Development office in Whitehorse but provided no other details.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Premier Ranj Pillai who's also the territory's Economic Development minister also had little to say about the ongoing police investigation, except that he believed it involved the Yukon Nominee Program.

"My earlier sense of this was that it did not have to do with operational activities, but potentially clients ofthe department," Pillai said.

"We're waiting to see what the RCMP is gonnasay and we're fully co-operating with whatever they need. And I know that's what the department'sbeen doing right from the start."

The Yukon Nominee Program is meant to helpbusinesses fill vacant jobsby bringing skilled workers to the territory. Hundreds of people apply for a limited number of spots under the program each year.

In his letter last week, the deputy auditor general said his office was still conducting "exploratory work to finalize the scope" of itsaudit when it learned ofthe RCMP search in June.

"There is significant likelihood that information that is relevant and necessary for our audit will not be available to us at this time because of the search warrant," Hayeswrote.

While the audit is on hold, Hayes said his office would in the meantime provide the Department of Economic Development with some "high-level issues" already identified in its exploratory work, as well as some ideas for how those issues might be addressed.