EDITORIAL: Carney’s problem with conflicts of interest
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The only way Prime Minister Mark Carney could avoid all potential conflicts of interest in doing his job would be for him to sell all of his assets and appoint an independent trustee to invest that money going forward, without Carney knowing what those investments are.
In Canada, we’ve decided this places too much of an onus on any prime minister, so Carney has chosen the other option — a “blind trust” in which his assets aren’t sold but put into a trust to be administered by an independent trustee.
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Carney is correct when he says he’s complying with the process as it exists.
But Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre (who defended blind trusts in the past when it applied to a Conservative official) is correct in saying this process will inevitably put Carney into conflicts of interest.
This given that Carney must recuse himself from any cabinet discussions regarding his investments in 103 of more than 500 companies in his blind trust — including his former employer, Brookfield Asset Management.
They are subject to an ethics screen to be administered by two Carney appointees — chief of staff, Marc-Andre Blanchard, and Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Sabia.
The problem is that the rules on recusing himself don’t apply to Carney if a government decision has financial implications for a broad group of investors or companies beyond its impact on Carney, which is a judgment call.
As Ian Stedman, associate professor of Canadian public law and governance at York University told CBC’s Power & Politics:
“I think there’s no way (Carney) can avoid being in a conflict here and there. I think he’s going to have to do the right thing and be transparent about it and explain why he needs to contribute to a conversation about a particular file.
“We’d be crazy to think that he can express an opinion about something and not vote on it, but not have influence over what happens as a result of his opinion being expressed. As long he’s in the conversation he’s going to have influence over the results. There’s just no way to avoid that. He’s the prime minister.”
Again, to be fair to Carney, he’s following the rules as they exist. The problem is the rules are inadequate.
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