Carney defends minister's connection to rail project as Tories call for investigation

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney dismissed concerns on Tuesday about his finance minister’s “personal connection” to the government’s high-speed train project, but the Conservative opposition are now calling for an investigation by Canada’s ethics commissioner.  

Speaking at an event in Brampton, Ont., to announce housing investments, Carney said  François-Philippe Champagne followed all the rules when his spouse was hired as a senior executive at Alto, the organization managing the government’s plan to build high-speed rail between Toronto and Quebec City.  

“This is a good situation, because we have the partner who can pursue her career,” Carney told reporters, while “the minister of finance can do his responsibilities.”  

Carney also said that Canada’s ethics system needs to allow spouses and other family members to have careers.

“So we have to look at them as individuals. We need to have a system that will enable them to have those careers,” he said.

The prime minister was responding to media reports Monday about a letter that Champagne wrote to Carney in September to address possible conflicts, including the fact that his spouse,  Anne-Marie Gaudet, had been hired by Alto a month earlier. Alto is a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government and will lead Ottawa’s plan to build a high-speed rail network through Ontario and Quebec, a mega-project that is expected to cost up to $90 billion.  

In his letter, Champagne said he was writing to add a conflict-of-interest filter to his disclosure, and vows not to participate in any discussions or decisions with government representatives about the proposed high-speed rail project. Two months later, Champagne’s first budget included hundreds of millions of dollars for the rail project, although that money and the government’s support had been announced months earlier.  

While Champagne’s declarations were in keeping with standard practices for federal cabinet ministers, the declaration he made to Carney about his spouse’s new job — unlike his other declarations — was not posted on the Ethics Commissioner’s web site.  

John Fragos, Champagne’s spokesman, said that was the ethics commissioner’s decision, not the minister’s.  

The ethics commissioner’s office has not yet agreed to an interview request, but a spokesperson confirmed via email that the commissioner was copied on Champagne’s September letter to the prime minister. Melanie Rushworth  also said that family members — defined as spouses and dependents, not parents — are part of a public office holder’s disclosure requirements, but that they are not made public.  

Fragos also said that Champagne’s  proactive disclosures to the prime minister and the ethics commissioner were made to eliminate any perceived or real conflict and that the minister has since obeyed that vow.  

But Conservative MP Michael Barrett posted on social media Tuesday afternoon that he has written to the ethics commissioner to ask for an investigation of whether Champagne broke the conflict-of-interest rules. Champagne participated in numerous discussions and decisions regarding his own federal budget, which included money for Alto, Barrett wrote.  

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, which advocates for democratic reform, said ethics screens should be banned because they’re “smokescreens” and ineffective in preventing cabinet ministers and other government officials from participating in decisions they’re supposed to be avoiding.  

Conacher said the problem is that the screens are  administered by a minister’s loyalists, including their own chiefof staff, and that there’s no public record of when or if a minister has ever recused themselves from a discussion or decision.  

Ian Stedman,  a government ethics specialist who previously worked for Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner, said Champagne’s situation with Alto seems like it should be subject to a screen and posted on the ethics commissioner’s web site.  

Ministers are obliged to make their potential conflicts public through the ethics commissioner’s office, an independent agency, not the prime minister, said Stedman, also an associate professor at York University in Toronto.   

While in Brampton, Carney also touted the benefits of the rail plan, calling it a “ really exciting project for Ontario, for Quebec and for the whole of Canada.” The new rail link, not expected to be completed for more than a decade, will use Canadian expertise, steel and workers, he said, while supporting and creating more than 50,000 jobs and adding $25 billion to the economy.  

The project, first announced early last year by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, is shaping up to be a hot-button issue. Supporters say it will add an important piece to Canada’s transportation network, improve job creation, safety and traffic congestion and reduce pollution.   

Critics say it will be too expensive, almost certainly much more than $90 billion, and will not be used enough to justify the cost. They also argue that the environmental benefits will be minimal because motorists will no longer be using gas-powered cars by the time the high-speed rail line is running.  

National Post

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.