Carney’s ethics filing details Brookfield conflict of interest screen
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s chief of staff and the country’s top public servant will be responsible for maintaining an ethics screen preventing him from making decisions that benefit his former employer, says a disclosure issued by the office of the ethics commissioner on Friday.
The disclosure states that Carney and the commissioner have agreed to a conflict of interest screen “aimed at preventing any opportunity” to further Carney’s interests “or to improperly further those of Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Corporation, and Stripe Inc., and any company owned or controlled by them.”
Carney worked for Brookfield Asset Management before he decided to run for the Liberal leadership in January.
The screen is administered by Marc-André Blanchard, Carney’s chief of staff, and Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia. They’re tasked with ensuring Carney is not made aware of and does not participate in “any official matters or decision-making processes involving” Brookfield and Stripe, the disclosure said.
“This screen will prevent me from giving preferential treatment to any of the companies while I exercise my official powers, duties, and functions as a reporting public office holder,” Carney said in the disclosure.
It also notes he can take part in discussions or decisions that affect the companies if they are “a member of a broad class of persons.”
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau also had a conflict of interest screen in place while he was in office, as did several members of his cabinet.
When Carney was sworn in as prime minister in March, he was required to file information about his assets and potential conflicts of interest with the commissioner’s office.
The law gave him 60 days to disclose financial information to the ethics commissioner, and 120 days for that disclosure to become public.
The law also holds that 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.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said Carney worked with the commissioner to “exceed” the ethics rules by creating the blind trust days before he was sworn in as prime minister in March.
“All of his investments were placed in the blind trust and all investment decisions are taken independently from him,” said Emily Williams.
The Conservatives attacked Carney from the time he announced his run for the Liberal leadership, 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.
The Tories also had demanded that Carney release a full list of all his assets and any potential conflicts of interest, beyond the disclosure to the ethics commissioner’s office.
The ethics commissioner’s office has released a list of shares Carney owned before creating the blind trust. They included shares in a number of companies, including Stripe, as well as options and deferred shares in Brookfield Corporation and Brookfield Asset Management.
He also owned shares in more than 560 companies through “an investment account managed by a third party in respect of which the prime minister did not control or direct the selection of investments,” the disclosure said.
That 15-page list includes big-name American companies such as Tesla, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Philip Morris International, defence giant Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Walmart and Fox.
It also includes major Canadian corporations like Lululemon Athletica, Canadian Natural Resources and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
The disclosure does not state the value of any of Carney’s holdings at the time the blind trust was created.
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