Mark Carney’s team says he has placed his assets into a blind trust and is working with the conflict of interest commissioner ahead of being sworn in as prime minister.
“We have been actively working with the ethics commissioner and we have delivered a full and robust conflict of interest management plan,” said Audrey Champoux, a spokesperson for Carney.
“Prime minister-designate Carney has now divested all assets, other than his personal real estate, into a blind trust.”
Champoux said paperwork was submitted to the ethics commissioner on Sunday after Carney learned he had won the Liberal leadership race.
Carney will become subject to Canada’s Conflict of Interest Act once he’s sworn in as prime minister, which is expected to happen this week.
The law gives him 60 days to disclose financial information to the ethics commissioner.
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Within 120 days of taking office, the prime minister, cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries must divest controlled assets by selling them at arm’s length or putting them in a blind trust, according to the commissioner’s website.
The ethics commissioner’s office confirmed it was in touch with Carney’s team but said strict confidentiality rules prevented it from disclosing what was discussed.
The commissioner’s office said the 120-day period for initial disclosure begins when Carney is sworn in, regardless of when he made the disclosures, and that a summary of Carney’s personal and financial information will be made public by the end of the 120 days. If it’s completed sooner, the public report may be made available sooner.
The Conservatives have taken aim at Carney throughout the leadership race, calling him “sneaky” and claiming he was exploiting a loophole in the laws by not disclosing his assets as soon as he became a candidate for the Liberal leadership.
Because he has never been an elected MP or cabinet minister, Carney has not had to make disclosures to the ethics commissioner before now.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday that if his party forms the next government, he will change the disclosure law to include federal party leadership candidates. The Conservatives said the change would direct all leadership candidates to disclose their financial holdings to the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner within 30 days of becoming an official candidate, and to make them available to Canadians within 60 days.
It also would require all future prime ministers and cabinet ministers to “sell assets that create conflicts of interest to stop politicians from ever using political office for their own benefit,” the Conservatives said in a press release.
On Tuesday, the Conservatives’ ethics critic said Carney hasn’t gone far enough.
“Mark Carney needs to immediately make his assets and conflicts of interest public so Canadians can judge for themselves. It is Canadians who are ‘blind’ to Carney’s assets and conflicts of interests, as Mark Carney has refused to provide answers,” Michael Barrett said in a media statement.
Duff Conacher said his group Democracy Watch “has been advocating for stronger rules that actually prevent conflicts of interest for 27 years,” and he thinks the country’s laws need to be strengthened.
“A blind trust is a sham facade that hides and does not prevent financial conflicts of interest because the politician knows what investments and assets they put in the trust, chooses their own trustee, and is allowed to give the trustee instructions, including to not sell anything,” Conacher said in an email.
