Champagne says he'll recuse himself due to 'personal connection' to high-speed rail company

OTTAWA — Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne released a letter on Monday that he says he wrote in September, vowing not to participate in any decisions about the government-backed organization behind the proposed high-speed rail link from Toronto to Quebec City.

The letter, addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney, was dated less than two months before a federal budget that provided the organization with hundreds of millions of dollars.

Champagne writes that he is “proactively applying a conflict of interest filter” about at least two subjects: a bio-tech company that Champagne’s father runs and Alto, the government-backed project that is in line to cost up to $90-billion.

The minister wrote that he has a “personal connection” with somebody who works for Alto. That person is Anne-Marie Gaudet, Champagne’s partner, who was hired as Alto’s vice-president of the environment in August. Although the money was included in the federal budget in the fall, it was announced earlier in the year, before Gaudet was hired.

Gaudet has worked in senior roles in both environmental assessment and the transportation sector, including holding a senior role at the Port of Quebec.

The letter, however, is not on the web site of the Office of Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, where such documents are normally posted. The letter is marked Sept. 10, 2025, although the date is written in a different font than the rest of the letter.

That site includes posts that, similar to other cabinet ministers, outline Champagne’s assets, trusts, other sources of income that could potentially pose conflicts of interest.

John Fragos, Champagne’s spokesman, said it was the ethics commissioner’s decision not to post Champagne’s letter to the prime minister on the office’s website. The screen related to Champagne’s father’s company, Bionest Technologies, is on the site.

The commissioner’s office could not be reached for comment Monday.

The release of the letter to Carney followed social media discussion over the weekend about the finance minister’s connection to Alto, a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government. According to his September letter to Carney, the filter means that Champagne is not to have participated in any discussions, decisions or communications with government representatives on the subject in question.

Less than two months later, however, Champagne’s first budget provided the high-speed rail project with hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars from various buckets of funding.

Alto was allocated $597-million for 2025-26 for pre-construction works such as design, environmental work, and consultations. The organization was also allocated $3.9-billlion over the next six years for the project’s co-development phase and $125-milllion over the next few years for helping the project get over hurdles such as approvals and coordination.

Fragos said Monday that Champagne’s proactive disclosure to the prime minister and the ethics commissioner was made to eliminate any perceived or real conflict.

“The minister fully respects the screen,” Fragos said in a written statement, “meaning he is neither implicated in nor party to any discussions, decisions, or votes related to Alto.”

Fragos also said there’s a distinction between a private company, such as the one owned by Gilles Champagne, the minister’s father, and Alto, a wholly owned government subsidiary that will be receiving regular funding from Ottawa.

Conflict-of-interest screens are designed to prevent conflicts or the perception of conflict. Carney, for example, made a large disclosure last summer designed to have him recuse himself from any discussions directly involving Brookfield Asset Management, payment processing giant Stripe and dozens of companies owned or controlled by them.

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

“I can’t even think of a reason why it wouldn’t be on the registry.”

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

But Stedman added that it’s difficult to know if Champagne recused himself from, for example, budget discussions that involved Alto and the government’s high-speed rail plans.

Alto, whose web site says that it’s “shaping Canada’s future with a high-speed train,” is to lead the central delivery and development of the project that was announced in the final days of Justin Trudeau’s government. Proponents point to job creation, the added safety and reduced traffic congestion of fewer cars on the road, passengers’ time savings, a possible tourism boost and the environment advantages of public transit.

Critics say it will be too expensive — almost certainly much more than $90 billion — and will not be used as much as proponents say. They also argue that the environmental benefits will be negligible because it’s unlikely that motorists will still be driving gas-powered cars by the time the high-speed rail line is available.

Construction of the project isn’t expected to begin for at least another three or four years, with the first passengers likely boarding at least five to six years after that. The entire system isn’t expected to be fully functional until the 2040s.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said last week that his party is against the project and would scrap it if elected. Poilievre said his main concern, beyond the price tag, is that it would require too much land expropriation.

With files from Christopher Nardi

National Post

Timeline

March 14, 2025: François-Philippe Champagne named finance minister

August, 2025: Champagne’s partner, Anne-Marie Gaudet, is hired as VP Environment by Alto, a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government tasked with the high-speed rail project from Toronto to Quebec city.

Sept. 10, 2025: Champagne apparently writes to Prime Minister Carney to add a conflict-of-interest filter to his conflict-of-interest disclosure. The addition relates to his father’s company and a “personal connection” to Alto. Neither the letter nor the filter is posted on the ethics commissioner’s web site.

Nov. 4, 2025: Champagne unveils the Carney government’s first budget. It includes hundreds of millions of dollars in both short-term and long-term funding for Alto. It also forecasts a deficit this year of $78.3 billion, the third-highest in Canadian history and the largest ever in a non-pandemic year.

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