Former IWK Health Centre CEO Tracy Kitch told her sentencing hearing on Jan. 6, 2026, that she “did not prioritize” oversight of the expense claims that led to her fraud conviction. The Crown asked for nine months in jail; the defence sought house arrest. The judge reserved her decision to Feb. 4.
“I did not prioritize these appropriately”
At the conclusion of her sentencing hearing in Halifax provincial court, Tracy Kitch said she was ultimately responsible for the performance of the IWK Health Centre, as well as for the decisions and practices related to her own expenses.
“I did not prioritize these appropriately … and I should have,” she told Judge Ronda van der Hoek, appearing by video link. “And I feel badly about that.”
Kitch, who confirmed she is currently unemployed, began by saying she was deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve as chief executive of Atlantic Canada’s largest children’s hospital between 2014 and 2017, and that she was proud of what her team achieved. She resigned in 2017, after an independent review of the hospital’s corporate credit card transactions and expense claims identified $47,273 of potentially personal expenses, of which $25,009 had been reimbursed.
At no point in her statement did Kitch apologize for her actions.
Crown seeks jail, and a ban on jobs of trust
Prosecutor Peter Dostal asked the court for a nine-month jail sentence, followed by 24 months of probation and an order prohibiting Kitch from working in any job or volunteer position that involves authority over property or money.
“The message this sentence should send is that senior public servants who … personally enrich themselves at the public’s expense will face real consequence,” Dostal told the court. He said the judge’s conviction decision made clear the conduct was systemic over two and a half years, with public resources repeatedly used for personal reasons, and that Kitch — who earned about $280,000 a year when hired in 2014 — wilfully ignored spending rules in an intentional pattern of “self-dealing and self benefit.” He noted her repayments came only after she “was caught”: “It wasn’t a voluntary signal of remorse, but rather damage control to avoid the inevitable.”
Defence lawyer Nick Fitch asked instead for a conditional sentence: 12 months of house arrest, six months under a curfew, then probation. “This is not a sophisticated fraud case,” he argued. “It did not involve planning and scheming… Many people knew Ms. Kitch was using the credit cards for personal purposes early on.” He said the hospital’s reputation had not been damaged, pointing to record fundraising during her proceedings, and that she repaid the funds before any suggestion of police involvement.
A second conviction, and a long road to it
Kitch’s conviction in September was the second time she had been convicted of illegally billing personal expenses to the IWK. In her Sept. 5 ruling, van der Hoek found Kitch’s actions dishonest, said she “never intended to pay back those expenditures,” and concluded that almost all of the spending flowed from her refusal to commit to living in Nova Scotia, using IWK resources to “regularly reunite with her family/life in Toronto.” The prosecution estimated her personal spending on the corporate card at more than $30,000.
Her first conviction, in February 2022, brought a five-month jail sentence of which she served one night before being released on bail pending appeal. In March 2023, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal quashed that conviction because the trial judge had not adequately explained his reasons, setting up the retrial. Kitch was originally charged in October 2018.
The sentence, when it came
Judge van der Hoek reserved her decision until Feb. 4 — and then sided with the Crown. Kitch was sentenced to nine months in jail followed by 24 months of probation, and was barred from holding a position of public trust for 10 years. “May this sentence also serve as a message to public officials that public service is a high calling and fraud against public institutions should result in the doors of a jail cell locking behind an offender,” the judge said. Kitch left the courtroom in handcuffs, and was later released on bail while she appeals the conviction for a second time.
