High-Spending McLeod Lake Chief Wins Re-Election

Despite allegations of financial improprieties, Harley Chingee has handily won a fourth consecutive term as Chief of the McLeod Lake Indian Band.

Chingee garnered nearly 64 per cent of votes cast in the band’s election last Friday. The election results, which were posted shortly after polls closed, showed Chingee received 170 votes. That easily surpassed his nearest rival for the band’s top elected position, former band councillor Jodie Ware, who received just 97 votes. A total of 266 band members cast ballots.

Chingee’s vote count also increased from the 2023 band election, when he garnered 110 votes.

In June 2024, the Prince George Citizen reported that Ware and her fellow councillors had taken the rare step of issuing an open letter to the band’s members saying that it was investigating matters of “serious misconduct and potential misappropriation of funds.” The letter declared that council had ceased participating in meetings with Chingee.

The story was the first to reveal that an investigation was underway. There was no subsequent open letter to band members disclosing what the investigation unearthed.

Following the Citizen story, The Tyee reported that VISA credit card statements it had obtained revealed frequent spending by Chingee at hotels, women’s clothing stores, high-end restaurants and entertainment.

As part of its investigation, The Tyee also reviewed hundreds of documents submitted by more than 100 B.C. First Nations under the federal government’s First Nations Financial Transparency Act. The documents revealed that in the three fiscal years ending in 2025 Chingee claimed more than $370,000 in expenses. No other First Nation leader in B.C. came remotely close to filing expenses of such magnitude.

The Tyee received Chingee’s band-issued credit card statements from a source who requested anonymity.

Among Chingee’s expense claims were purchases at women’s clothing and department stores over two weeks that totalled more than $5,000. Chingee later said the purchases were to outfit “two girls” who he said were dressed inappropriately for band business.

He also spent $11,000 in a single month at high-end hotels and contributed to both the federal Liberal and provincial NDP parties using the credit card. If those contributions were not subsequently reimbursed to the band by Chingee, they violated both federal and provincial political contribution rules.

The credit card statements also showed that Chingee spent $6,760 on purchases at Rogers Arena, at least some of which went toward purchasing tickets for a Vancouver Canucks hockey game.

A longtime hockey fan who founded his own team in the 1980s, Chingee and his assistant, Natalie Theessen, both attended a Stanley Cup Finals hockey game in Las Vegas in 2023. The Tyee asked Chingee whether expenses associated with that trip were charged to the band but received no reply.

Chingee and the Band’s elected councillors have declined to respond to questions and phone calls by The Tyee.

Chingee did, however, speak to the Citizen in response to The Tyee’s reporting and was unapologetic about the spending, saying he spent money to make money for the band’s 590 members.

The Citizen story reported that the investigation had unearthed no wrongdoing. But in May, The Tyee reported that the band’s council had stripped Chingee of his ability to use the card.

Prior to the last band election in 2023, Chingee pledged that all eligible band members would each receive two payments totalling $25,000 if he was re-elected. Band member Kandy Stout said the promises helped secure Chingee’s re-election that year. He also endorsed several candidates running for positions on the band’s council. Only one of Chingee’s preferred candidates was elected, however.

This year, in his most recent election campaign document, Chingee once again endorsed numerous candidates for council.

Three of Chingee’s preferred candidates — Desiree Steele, Destiny Bear and Wesley Chingee — were subsequently elected. If they vote with Chingee, the four would represent a majority of the seven-member council.

The Tyee requested comments from Chingee and Jodie Ware for this article but received no response.