Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney addresses supporters in Calgary, on March 4.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney says he’ll immediately put his assets into a blind trust if he becomes prime minister.
Mr. Carney’s promise comes after weeks of criticism over his refusal to disclose his financial holdings until he is legally required to do so under existing conflict of interest and ethics law.
“If Mark Carney has the privilege of becoming prime minister, he would not merely comply with all applicable ethics rules and guidelines, but surpass them,” his campaign said Thursday.
“The Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner has already been contacted ahead of time to help ensure all appropriate steps can be initiated right away, and assets would be immediately placed in a blind trust.”
The Ethics Commissioner’s Office confirmed Thursday that Mr. Carney has been in touch.
Under the Conflict of Interest Act, the prime minister, cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries are not allowed to own what’s called “controlled assets,” which are assets whose value could be directly or indirectly affected by government decisions or policies, such as stocks, bonds and closed-end mutual funds.
The act requires public-office holders to either sell their assets or place them in a blind trust within 120 days of their appointment.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he will resign once his replacement is elected. Registered members of the Liberal Party will elect his successor on Sunday, and Mr. Carney is considered the front-runner among the candidates.
How soon the winner would be sworn in as prime minister has yet to be decided. Mr. Trudeau said this week that will be up for discussion with whoever wins, and he told reporters on Thursday he was looking forward to a transition to his successor in the “coming days or week.”
When Mr. Carney launched his campaign for Liberal leadership in January, he said he had cut all ties with his corporate career.
Until then, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and of the Bank of England was Brookfield Asset Management’s board chair and head of transition investing as well as chair of the board of Bloomberg LP, the media and financial data company controlled by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
Mr. Carney was on the board of payments processor Stripe Inc., and on an advisory board for investment giant PIMCO. He also served as UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and co-chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.
His role at Brookfield was likely his largest source of income.
Brookfield does not publish Mr. Carney’s compensation. He does not hold Brookfield shares outright. But, he has 41,357 of what are called deferred share units, each of which represents a Brookfield share. They are worth more than $3-million at the recent TSX trading price of around $73.
Brookfield has also given Mr. Carney 503,049 stock options in three grants since December, 2022. (Stock options give executives the right to purchase company shares at a set exercise price for an extended period. But options are only usable if the market price is above the exercise price.)
Based on Brookfield’s recent trades on the New York Stock Exchange at US$51, and the stock’s closing prices on the days Mr. Carney received the grants, the options have potential profits of more than US$7.7-million.
Stock-ownership records filed with Canadian securities regulators do not indicate Mr. Carney sold the shares before he ceased to be a Brookfield Asset Management employee.
Mr. Carney said when he launched his leadership bid that he would not pro-actively disclose his assets until he was covered by the law.
Individuals subject to the Conflict of Interest Act have up to 60 days after taking office to make a confidential report to the Ethics Commissioner laying out their liabilities, sources of income, charitable work and “any other information” the commissioner considers necessary.
There is also a 120-day deadline to publicly declare assets and outside activities, subject to some exemptions, and for a sign-off.
The Conservatives have called for Mr. Carney to more pro-actively disclose his holdings, noting the current timelines mean he could win the party leadership, become prime minister, run in a general election and then govern without Canadians having insights into any potential conflicts.
On Thursday, Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett wrote a letter to Mr. Carney, saying that committing to putting his assets in a blind trust doesn’t mean he’s going beyond the law – it is the law.
Mr. Carney is asking Canadians to trust him, but has given them no reason for why they should, Mr. Barrett wrote, citing Mr. Carney’s claim that he was on the board at Brookfield when it moved its headquarters to New York as an example.
Mr. Carney later said he wasn’t precise enough in how he described the move, which did in fact take place while he was board chair.
“If you have nothing to hide, then you should publicly disclose all your assets and interests for Canadians to judge,” Mr. Barrett wrote, calling for him to do so before the Liberals elect a new leader on Sunday.
“Anything less will raise serious suspicion about your motives and further erode Canadians’ ability to trust anything you have to say.”
Two other leadership candidates, Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould, are already subject to conflict-of-interest rules because they are members of Parliament.
A fourth candidate, former MP Frank Baylis, has previously said he’ll disclose his assets upon winning the leadership race and becoming prime minister.
With reports from James Bradshaw and David Milstead