{"id":466300,"date":"2026-02-10T17:57:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466300\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:57:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:57:59","slug":"former-nova-scotia-health-care-ceo-sentenced-for-defrauding-childrens-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466300\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Nova Scotia health care CEO sentenced for defrauding children\u2019s hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former CEO of the IWK Health Centre<\/a> has been sentenced to nine months in jail for defrauding the children\u2019s hospital during her time in charge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tracy Kitch<\/a> was convicted last year after the court found she spent more than $30,000 on her corporate credit card to pay for personal expenses, including flights and limo services.<\/p>\n

Kitch, who is now unemployed, had pleaded not guilty to fraud over $5,000.<\/p>\n

During her sentencing hearing last month<\/a>, she told the court she failed to properly prioritize oversight of her expense claims.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:14
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSentencing hearing underway for former IWK CEO found guilty of defrauding hospital\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Judge Ronda van der Hoek sentenced Kitch to nine months behind bars. She will also be on probation for 24 months after her jail time.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Kitch left the courtroom in handcuffs following the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Receive<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet weekly health news<\/p>\n

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.<\/p>\n

The defence was seeking 12 months of house arrest, but the judge ultimately sided with the Crown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re of the view of something of this seriousness with this degree of breach of trust requires no sentence less than a period of incarceration in a provincial institution,\u201d said Crown attorney Peter Dostal outside the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Kitch is appealing her conviction, with a court date set for Thursday.<\/p>\n

Found guilty twice<\/p>\n

Kitch was first charged in 2018 and subsequently convicted of fraud in February 2022.<\/p>\n

That decision was overturned by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal before a new trial began in 2024, where she was convicted again.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:36
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFormer IWK CEO gets bail one day after being sentenced for fraud\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tAbducted Mexico workers found dead, Canadian mining company says\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tCarney says he had \u2018positive\u2019 call with Trump on Gordie Howe bridge threat\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Judge van der Hoek said Ktich was motivated by \u201cgreed and a sense of entitlement\u201d and betrayed the public with her actions.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

The judge said while Kitch made repayments, she demonstrated little insight into her wrongdoing, which the judge said doesn\u2019t bode well for rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for the public to trust our government, to trust our hard-working civil services, we have to make it clear if anyone\u2019s going to start self-serving before they serve the public, there\u2019s going to be serious consequences and I think that decision today makes that very clear,\u201d said Dostal.<\/p>\n

During the retrial, the judge also said Kitch\u2019s decisions deprived the hospital of money needed to provide health care for mothers and children.<\/p>\n

Kitch began her role as CEO in 2014 with a starting salary of $280,000. She resigned in 2017 after an independent review of the hospital\u2019s credit card transactions<\/a> and claims identified $47,273 of potentially personal expenses, of which $25,009 had been reimbursed.<\/p>\n

Those personal expenses included air fare tickets, flight passes, meals, hotel rooms, mobile data overages, and iTunes charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cHotel costs include a hotel stay by a family member of the CEO during a visit to Halifax, as well as hotel charges related to a personal trip to the U.S. that were charged to the corporate credit card,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n

\u2014 with a file from The Canadian Press\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Crime
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former CEO of the IWK Health Centre has been sentenced to nine months in jail for defrauding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,2169,84,392,28931,190310],"class_list":{"0":"post-466300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-iwk-health-centre","14":"tag-tracy-kitch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}