Mark Carney’s team says he has put his assets into a visually impaired trust and is working with the conflict of interest commissioner before being sworn as prime minister.
“We have worked actively with the ethics committee and implemented a complete and robust conflict of interest management plan,” said Audrey Chanpo, spokesman for Carney.
“Kearney, the Prime Minister nominated, has blindly trusted all his assets other than his personal property.”
Champoux said the documents were submitted to the ethics committee on Sunday after learning that Carney had won the liberal leadership race.
Carney will be subject to Canada’s conflict of interest law when sworn as prime minister, which is due to happen this week.
The law gives him 60 days to disclose financial information to the ethics committee.
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Within 120 days of inauguration, the Prime Minister, Minister and Congress secretaries must sell their regulated assets by selling them at arm length or by placing them in blind trust, according to the committee’s website.
The ethics committee’s office confirmed it was in contact with Carney’s team, but said strict confidentiality rules prevented them from disclosing what was discussed.
The committee said the 120 days of initial disclosure will begin when Carney is sworn in irrespective of when he made the disclosure, and a summary of Carney’s personal and financial information will be made public by the end of the 120th. If it is completed faster, the public report can be made available faster.
Conservatives have targeted Carney through the leadership race, calling him “despicable” and claiming that they are exploiting loopholes in the law by not revealing his assets as soon as he becomes a candidate for Liberal leadership.
He has never been an elected MP or minister, so Carney has not had to disclose to the ethics committee until now.
Conservative leader Pierre Polyable said Friday that if his party forms the next government, it will change its disclosure law to include federal candidates. Conservatives said the change would direct all leadership candidates to disclose financial holdings to conflicts of interest and ethics committees within 30 days of becoming official candidates, making them available to Canadians within 60 days.
Also, all future prime ministers and cabinet ministers will require “selling assets that create conflicts of interest to stop politicians from using political positions for their own interests,” conservatives said in a press release.
On Tuesday, a conservative ethics critic said Carney wasn’t going well enough.
“Mark Carney needs to immediately disclose his assets and conflicts of interest so that Canadians can make their own judgment. It is the Canadians who are “blind” by Carney’s assets and conflicts of interest as Mark Carney refuses to provide the answer,” Michael Barrett said in a media statement.
Duff Conacher said his group Democracy Watch “advocates strong rules that actually prevent conflicts of interest for 27 years,” and he believes the country’s laws need to be strengthened.
“The Blind Trust is a fake façade that hides financial conflicts and does not hinder financial conflicts because politicians are allowed to direct the trustee, including placing which investments and assets into the trust, choosing their trustee, and selling nothing,” Conacher said in an email.
