A former Nova Scotia health-care CEO admitted in court on Tuesday that she had failed to properly prioritize oversight of her expense claims, which had led to her being convicted of fraud over $5,000 last year.
At the conclusion of her sentencing hearing, Tracy Kitch said she was ultimately responsible for the performance of the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, as well as the decisions and practices related to her expenses.
“I did not prioritize these appropriately … and I should have,” she told provincial court Judge Ronda van der Hoek via a video link. “And I feel badly about that.”
Kitch, who confirmed she is currently unemployed, began her statement by saying she was deeply grateful for being given the opportunity to serve as CEO of Atlantic Canada’s largest children’s hospital between 2014 and 2017.
“I’m proud of what we achieved as a team,” she said, adding that she resigned in 2017. That’s when an independent review of the hospital’s corporate credit card transactions and expense claims identified $47,273 of potentially personal expenses, of which $25,009 has been reimbursed.
At no point during her statement on Tuesday did Kitch apologize for her actions.
Earlier in the hearing, prosecutor Peter Dostal said the Crown is seeking a nine-month jail sentence for Kitch, followed by 24 months of probation and the imposition of a court order prohibiting her from working in a job or volunteer position that involves authority over property or money.
“The message this sentence should send is that senior public servants who … personally enrich themselves at the public’s expense will face real consequence,” Dostal told van der Hoek.
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“The court found … that the conduct was systemic over two-and-a-half years, when public resources were repeatedly used for personal reasons.”
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Dostal said that while Kitch had repaid the money owed to the hospital, he noted that van der Hoek’s decision made it clear the repayment came after the accused “was caught.”
“It wasn’t a voluntary signal of remorse, but rather damage control to avoid the inevitable,” he said.
The prosecutor also noted that when Kitch was hired in 2014, she was earning about $280,000 annually.
Dostal said Kitch wilfully ignored spending rules as part of an intentional plan of “self-dealing and self benefit.”
Defence lawyer Nick Fitch said his client should receive a conditional sentence that includes 12 months of house arrest, followed by six months of a court-ordered curfew and then a period of probation.
“This is not a sophisticated fraud case,” Fitch told the court. “It did not involve planning and scheming …. Many people knew Ms. Kitch was using the credit cards for personal purposes early on.”
As well, Fitch said the hospital’s reputation had not been damaged by Fitch’s conviction, noting that its fundraising efforts continued to set records during her court proceedings.
“Ms. Kitch paid back all of the funds before there was a suggestion of police involvement,” Fitch said.
The judge said she would reserve her sentencing decision until Feb. 4.
Kitch’s conviction in September marked the second time she had been convicted of illegally billing personal expenses to the IWK Health Centre. After her first conviction in February 2022, Kitch was later sentenced to five months in jail. But she spent only one night in custody before she was released on bail pending an appeal.
In March 2023, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal quashed the initial conviction, having decided the trial judge had failed to adequately explain his reasons for convicting Kitch.
The appeal court’s three-member panel said that when Kitch was appointed as the hospital’s CEO in 2014, she was provided a corporate credit card, and acknowledged in writing that it was not for personal use. Early in her term, hospital staff found it difficult to track her business and personal expenses, the appeal court said. And in October 2016, her expense records were posted on a public website, as required by the provincial government.
“Eventually, media attention came to bear on the appellant’s expense history,” the ruling says. “By September 2017, the scrutiny was so intense that (Kitch), having by then reimbursed the IWK thousands of dollars for personal expenses, resigned.”
She was charged in October 2018.
During Kitch’s retrial last year, the prosecution estimated her personal spending amounted to more than $30,000 on a corporate credit card while she was CEO. The Crown also noted it was impossible to account for all of Kitch’s fraudulent spending because of her poor record keeping.
In a ruling handed down on Sept. 5, van der Hoek said Kitch’s actions were dishonest and deprived the IWK of money meant to address health-care needs for mothers and children. The judge said Kitch “never intended to pay back those expenditures.”
The decision said almost all of Kitch’s spending was the result of not committing to live in Nova Scotia while using IWK resources to “regularly reunite with her family/life in Toronto.”
The judge said Kitch admitted to a “significant number” of the personal charges and flights, but only after being “caught out.”
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