Prime Minister Mark Carney at the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Monday. Mr. Carney has faced questions over potential conflicts of interest since entering politics.Edgar Su/Reuters
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s corporate connections will be scrutinized again by the House of Commons after opposition MPs voted Tuesday to call his senior aides and former business colleagues to testify for their review of the Conflict of Interest Act.
Prior to entering politics, Mr. Carney served as chairman of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., a major investment company, and also sat on the boards for numerous other companies and initiatives.
Senior Brookfield executives will be called to testify at the ethics committee’s review of the act, as will Mr. Carney’s chief of staff and the Clerk of the Privy Council.
The ethics committee began a review of the act earlier this fall, proposed by the Conservatives. They argue that the existing regime doesn’t contemplate a person with a private-sector background akin to Mr. Carney’s entering politics.
“We are reviewing this act in the context of a Prime Minister who has 103 potential conflicts that have to be managed,” Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett said during debate on the issue earlier this week.
“What does that mean and what does that look like?”
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Questions about Mr. Carney’s potential conflicts of interest have dogged him since the day he launched his Liberal leadership campaign in January.
He resigned his corporate positions at the time but wouldn’t commit to adhering to existing conflict-of-interest law for politicians because he was yet to be elected. The regime only applies to public office holders, and that’s one element the Conservatives want changed.
When he became Liberal Leader and Prime Minister, he began working with the Ethics Commissioner to comply with the law.
But despite continuing pressure, he declined to proactively disclose his holdings and which, if any, conflict-of-interest screens he’d set up, saying that they would be made public in keeping with legal timelines.
Of primary concern to his critics is his connection to Brookfield, which has investments in numerous sectors that could be affected by government policy. Mr. Carney’s personal finances could in turn be affected as well.
Mr. Carney has placed most of his assets in what’s known as a “blind trust,” meaning that he no longer has control over how they are invested.
The opposition parties argue that this is insufficient, as he still knows what they are and could make decisions in his own favour.
Meanwhile, filings with the Ethics Commissioner made public in July revealed that Mr. Carney must recuse himself from discussions, debates, decisions or votes specifically pertaining to more than 100 corporate entities.
The screen is administered by his chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, and by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Sabia.
They’re being called to the ethics committee in part to explain how the screen is working. Neither Mr. Carney nor his staff are required to disclose publicly he’s been prevented from participating in a decision-making process, though the screen does say that where appropriate, the Prime Minister could make a public declaration of recusal.
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Brookfield did not immediately return a request for comment from The Globe and Mail on Tuesday.
The call for testimony from Mr. Carney’s top aides, as well as Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Corporation, and Connor Teskey, president of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., to appear at the hearings was put to a vote in the Commons late Tuesday afternoon.
The Liberals were the only party to vote against the motion.
“Conservatives are trying to score political points, do a character assassination or give some sort of impression that the Prime Minister is offside somehow, and I say shame on that,” said Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux during the debate earlier in the week.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein appeared before the ethics committee earlier this fall, with his proposals for what could be changed about the law and conflict-of-interest code.
But he also cautioned MPs, saying making the rules too hard could discourage people from entering politics altogether.
“Part of my job is exactly that: making sure that the best people can get into the public service, and out of it, with the least amount of conflict of interest,” he said.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that opposition MPs voted Tuesday to call the Prime Minister's senior aides and former business colleagues to testify for a review of the Conflict of Interest Act. It has also been updated to clarify that the ethics committee, which is controlled by the Conservatives, began a broader review of the act earlier this fall. (Nov. 19, 2025) This article has been further updated for clarity, as the ethics committee is chaired by a Conservative; and to note that the Prime Minister could make a public declaration of recusal, although neither he nor his staff are required to do so.