Nelson police are investigating potential fraud after the Kootenay Lake District Parents' Advisory Council found approximately $15,000 missing from its bank balance despite treasurer's reports that showed otherwise.
D-PAC chair Natalia Nazaroff said the organization's executive discovered in August that the reports did not match their balances. She also said the D-PAC had falsely been led to believe it had received $7,500 from the provincial gaming grant over three years, when in reality the funds were not provided due to incomplete year-end financial records required by the provincial government.
Nazaroff said the discrepancies date back to 2020 and the organization's treasurer has since resigned.
Like all D-PACs in B.C., the Kootenay Lake D-PAC is legislated under the School Act to represent individual school parent advisory committees at the board level within School District 8.
Nazaroff said the organization has received its annual operating grant of $4,900 from the school district. The D-PAC has also applied for a gaming grant, which is $2,500 and would cover parent education events. But the application was sent in late, which means Nazaroff isn't sure what the services will be offered this school year outside of its advocacy role.
“It all depends on the gaming money coming in. Give us a little bit of time, hopefully we'll have some good news in the next little bit. That’s our hope. We're working really, really hard behind the scenes trying to reconcile the books and deal with all of the legal aspects of it and find out how we can proceed.”
It's the third time in recent years a B.C. parent advisory council has had to have its finances investigated.
In 2020, a treasurer with an Oliver elementary school PAC plead guilty to stealing over $17,000 from the organization. Then in 2023, another volunteer plead guilty to stealing more than $20,000 from a Kelowna elementary school PAC.