Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has raised ethics concerns over the Liberal party’s newly appointed finance advisor, the former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
In a speech Poilievre made on Parliament Hill Wednesday, the Conservative leader criticized Justin Trudeau’s decision to appoint Carney as the chair of a “Leader’s Task Force on Economic Growth,” saying Carney holds conflicting interests as the owner of several multinational companies and a member of the World Economic Forum and UN.
“We found out that there’s a new Phantom finance minister now,” Poilievre said. “They have a lame duck Minister (Chrystia Freeland) right now, who Trudeau is pushing aside, just like he pushed aside other female ministers, and he’s bringing in Carbon Tax Carney, someone who has too many conflicts to hold the real position.”
Poilievre and others have speculated that Carney will replace Trudeau as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Some polls, such as a Nanos Research poll last month, have also shown that Carney is the preferred pick. Though Carney avoided saying he was running for politics when pressed about it on Tuesday.
Poilievre named him “Carbon Tax Carney” for his ardent support of carbon pricing.
The Conservative’s ethics and accountable government critic, Michael Barrett, sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday disclosing Carney’s alleged conflicts of interest.
In the letter, Barrett requested that Trudeau “merely move Mr. Carney’s role within the government as opposed to the Liberal party so that he will have to publicly disclose all of his financial interests and abide by all ethics and conflict of interest laws.”
The Conservatives argue that Carney’s newly appointed role mirrors that of a Reporting Public Office Holder. They say the Liberals intentionally elected him as an advisor to the party rather than the government to shield Carney’s apparent conflicts of interest from ethics regulations and conflict of interest laws.
“It is clear that Mark Carney’s role is not limited to the Liberal Party, but instead dictating the
economic policy direction of the current sitting government,” Barrett’s letter said. “As you said yourself, ‘Mark’s unique ideas and perspectives will play a vital role in shaping the next steps in our plan to continue to grow our economy and strengthen the middle class.’”
Justin Trudeau did not respond to True North’s requests to comment.
The letter explains that if he were appointed as a Ministerial Advisor which advises the government and not the party, the Conflict of Interest Act would demand that he disclose any potential conflicts of interest between his private financial interests and the advice he gives the state.
Carney is currently the chair of the international investment firm Brookfield Asset Management and head of Transition Investing.
“Mr. Carney directly invests in energy assets in Canada and around the world, creating a direct personal financial benefit if the federal government were to adopt specific policies,” Barrett argued in the letter.
In December 2023, Brookfield directly benefited from investments in Entropy Inc, a crown company created by Freeland. According to a public financial report, Carney made $987,375 from investments with Brookfield that same year.
The letter also notes that Carney sits on the board of Stripe Inc., a $65 billion multinational payment processing corporation that falls under Canada’s federal regulations. He’s also on the advisory board of Watershed, a company that sells carbon-emissions tracking software.
“He doesn’t have to have his interests and his investments exposed online like the rest of us. He gets all the power and all the money and none of the accountability,” Poilievre said.
Carney is also a senior Counsellor at the international global consulting firm Macro Advisory Partners, which works for major multinational companies such as Uber, Apple, and Mastercard. And is Chairman of Bloomberg L.P, a data analytics company.
“He keeps the money with his chairmanship of a large multinational corporation that’s moving investment to China, that buys pipelines in Latin America and the Middle East, while he opposes them here in Canada,” Poilievre said. “He gets to push his radical Davos agenda of ‘you will own nothing and be happy,’”
The WEF counts Carney as an “Agenda Contributor.” He’s also the Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance at the United Nations.
“We don’t need a phantom finance minister. If you are going to be pulling the strings, you should be on the floor of the House of Commons, with your massive financial interests and your foreign interests disclosed to Canadians. Stop pushing to kill Canadian jobs while you ship the jobs abroad, make your carbon tax agenda known and be held accountable for Canadians so that we can choose in the carbon tax election.”
