The former CEO of the IWK Health Centre has been sentenced to nine months in jail for defrauding the children’s hospital during her time in charge.
Tracy Kitch was convicted last year after the court found she spent more than $30,000 on her corporate credit card to pay for personal expenses, including flights and limo services.
Kitch, who is now unemployed, had pleaded not guilty to fraud over $5,000.
During her sentencing hearing last month, she told the court she failed to properly prioritize oversight of her expense claims.
On Wednesday, Judge Ronda van der Hoek sentenced Kitch to nine months behind bars. She will also be on probation for 24 months after her jail time.
Kitch left the courtroom in handcuffs following the judge’s decision.
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The defence was seeking 12 months of house arrest, but the judge ultimately sided with the Crown.
“We’re of the view of something of this seriousness with this degree of breach of trust requires no sentence less than a period of incarceration in a provincial institution,” said Crown attorney Peter Dostal outside the courtroom.
Kitch is appealing her conviction, with a court date set for Thursday.
Found guilty twice
Kitch was first charged in 2018 and subsequently convicted of fraud in February 2022.
That decision was overturned by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal before a new trial began in 2024, where she was convicted again.
Judge van der Hoek said Ktich was motivated by “greed and a sense of entitlement” and betrayed the public with her actions.
The judge said while Kitch made repayments, she demonstrated little insight into her wrongdoing, which the judge said doesn’t bode well for rehabilitation.
“In order for the public to trust our government, to trust our hard-working civil services, we have to make it clear if anyone’s going to start self-serving before they serve the public, there’s going to be serious consequences and I think that decision today makes that very clear,” said Dostal.
During the retrial, the judge also said Kitch’s decisions deprived the hospital of money needed to provide health care for mothers and children.
Kitch began her role as CEO in 2014 with a starting salary of $280,000. She resigned in 2017 after an independent review of the hospital’s credit card transactions and claims identified $47,273 of potentially personal expenses, of which $25,009 had been reimbursed.
Those personal expenses included air fare tickets, flight passes, meals, hotel rooms, mobile data overages, and iTunes charges.
“Hotel costs include a hotel stay by a family member of the CEO during a visit to Halifax, as well as hotel charges related to a personal trip to the U.S. that were charged to the corporate credit card,” the report found.
— with a file from The Canadian Press
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