Nova Scotia politician billed for extra work staffer wasn’t paid for, court told

HALIFAX – An employee of a former politician charged in Nova Scotia’s spending scandal says he received an income tax form for $9,900 for work her was never paid for.

George MacKeigan testified as a Crown witness today in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court trial of Russell MacKinnon.

MacKeigan, who worked as an executive assistant in MacKinnon’s Sydney River constituency office from May to August 2006, said he was asked to sign three blank receipts that were submitted to the Speaker’s Office by MacKinnon.

The Crown says the three receipts totalled $9,900 for vacation pay and work at the constituency office that included moving furniture and the packing and shredding of documents.

MacKeigan says he never got the money, but received a tax form in 2010 informing him that he owed the provincial government for income he didn’t claim in May of that year.

MacKinnon, a former Liberal cabinet minister, has pleaded not guilty to fraud, breach of trust and uttering forged documents.