Commentary on Sections Section 15: Payment of inquiry expenses by OFMDFM
This section requires OFMDFM to meet the expenses of the inquiry and delineates the circumstances in which these will not be paid. It makes clear that OFMDFM must pay any amounts awarded under section 14.
Under Subsections (4) and (5), OFMDFM is not obliged to fund activities that it has notified to the chairperson as being outside the inquiry’s terms of reference. It is anticipated that withdrawal of funding would occur only in the unlikely circumstances that the inquiry did not take the opportunity to resume operating within its terms of reference. OFMDFM would resume funding if satisfied the inquiry is again working within its terms of reference.
Subsection (6) requires OFMDFM to publish the total cost it has incurred under this section.