Prime Minister Mark Carney says he is in compliance with conflict-of-interest rules, rejecting requests to publicly disclose the details of the assets he put in a blind trust after becoming prime minister.
Carney, who was in London, England, on March 17 as part of his visit to Europe this week, was asked by a reporter if he would publicly disclose the details of his assets before he put them in a blind trust.
“I follow the rules of the ethics commissioner. I’m following them well in advance of any of the requirements, as you know, because I know you know this,” Carney replied.
Ethics rules require public office holders to disclose their assets to the ethics commissioner within 60 days of taking office. The ethics commissioner then may disclose some of the details within 120 days.
The exchange got testier when another reporter said it’s hard to believe that there’s no conflict-of-interest regarding the assets, and that if so Canadians should be aware of them.
Carney told the reporter to “look inside yourself,” and said she’s coming from a place of “ill will,” adding that he left the private sector to serve in public office.
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“You start from a prior of conflict and ill will. I have served in the private sector. I have stood up for Canada. I have left my roles in the private sector at a time of crisis for our country,” he said.
“I’m complying with all the rules. Your line of questioning is trying to invent new rules. I’m complying with the rules that the Parliament has laid out.”
The Conservatives, who have been pressuring Carney on this point, said in a statement on March 17 that Carney can’t “hide behind his ‘placebo’ blind trust.”
“The Canadian people deserve to know exactly what Mark Carney is conflicted on and he needs to immediately disclose what assets he placed into a blind trust,” the party said.
The Tories added that some of the potential areas in which the new prime minister could be in conflict of interest include nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage, wind turbines, natural gas heat pumps, battery energy storage, real estate projects, green hydrogen, Canadian pension funds, income tax laws, and real estate.
Carney was asked similar questions on his first day as prime minister on March 14, to which he responded, “once assets are in a blind trust, by definition you don’t know the assets because the trustees take over the responsibility.”
“I would like to reassure you that the assets I have were earned through employment, employment income, employment as a public servant, and employment in the private sector,” he said.
Carney became prime minister after winning the Liberal leadership race on March 9, and upon the resignation of Justin Trudeau on March 14.
Carney, who was governor of the Bank of Canada from 2007 to 2013, started his career in the private sector with Goldman Sachs in 1988 before becoming a public servant in 2003.
He became the governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, and later returned to the private sector.
He sat on the board of a number of financial corporations, including Brookfield Asset Management, Stripe, and PIMCO, holding chair positions with some of them.
He also served on the board of non-governmental organizations, including Bloomberg Philanthropies and the World Economic Forum, and was the U.N. special envoy on climate action and finance.
He resigned from these roles in January before entering the Liberal leadership race.
