Carney's chief of staff draws rebuke for comparing prime minister's ethics screen to Nigel Wright

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, drew a sharp rebuke from Conservatives on Thursday when he compared Carney’s sprawling conflicts of interests to Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright’s situation.

Blanchard is one of two senior public servants who was called to testify at the ethics committee this week to discuss the review of the Conflict of Interest Act.

“Canadians chose Mark Carney as prime minister because of his deep experience in both the public and private sectors. In fact, they did not elect him in spite of his vast global private sector experience, but precisely because of it,” he said in his opening remarks.

“Canadians understood that if we are to build a stronger, more resilient economy, one worthy of being the strongest in the G7, this experience is not optional. It is essential.”

Prior to entering politics, Carney was chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, which has US$1 trillion in assets under management, and also helped lead efforts to raise capital for two major Brookfield clean energy funds. He was also on Stripe’s board of directors.

When he became Liberal leader in March, he put all his assets, other than his personal real estate, into a blind trust. In July, federal ethics commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein ruled that he would have to respect an ethics screen with more than 100 companies.

The screen is meant to prevent any conflicts of interest with Brookfield Corporation, Brookfield Asset Management, Stripe Inc. and many more entities he has interests in.

Wright, who died in September , joined Harper’s office in 2010 after a long career in the private sector. He put his assets in a blind trust and was subject to an ethics screen to prevent him from being involved in discussions about his former employer, Onex.

At the time, opposition MPs joked that Wright could not even order a pizza for the prime minister’s office because one of Onex’s 40 firms was a pizza business.

“It’s exactly the same kind of case situation that you have with Prime Minister Carney,” said Blanchard, who referenced the now-deceased Wright’s situation multiple times during the meeting.

Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett said Wright was not the head of government, like Carney is.

“The chief of staff to the prime minister is not the prime minister, and the chief of staff to the prime minister does not have the ability to take the decisions and does not have the influence that the prime minister has,” he said.

Conservative MP Shuv Majumdar said Wright was “one of the most ethical people” he knew.

“The firm he represented was much more narrowly focused than the firm that Mr. Carney came from, which is very broad, affects a variety of sectors across the country,” he said.

“I think it’s a very different standard for the prime minister who decides versus a very senior advisor who advises.”

Speaking to the committee on Wednesday, the clerk of the Privy Council Michael Sabia — the other administrator of Carney’s extensive ethics screen — revealed that 13 files were flagged by his team as being potential conflicts of interest since he took the job in July.

Sabia defended the process, which he said is every bit as rigorous as the private sector.

“If there appears to be even a remote possibility that the screen may be needed, it is immediately put in place. Why? So that we always err on the side of caution,” he said.

Sabia said each of these 13 cases were brought to the ethics commissioner’s attention.

For seven of these files, the ethics screen was deemed not applicable. Five of them had no direct interaction with the more than 100 corporate entities listed as potential conflicts of interest for Carney, while two of them were fiscal measures with general applications.

For six of the 13 files, the ethics screen was applied which meant that Carney cannot be made aware of the discussions involving them before a decision is final and made public.

Sabia said those discussions are still ongoing which is why he could not share more. “In those circumstances, if we release that information, then we’ve defeated the purpose, because the prime minister would be aware of what those circumstances are,” he said.

The head of the public service said two instances in which the screen was applied and where a decision has already been made were about cross-border adjustments and a minor personal income tax change. He did not go into more detail about those changes.

Bloc Québécois MP Luc Thériault argued that the budget implementation act, for instance, implements tax credits for small modular nuclear reactors in Canada. One of the only companies making them is Westinghouse, in which Brookfield holds a majority stake.

Blanchard said that the ethics screen does not need to be triggered if it is a matter of “general application” — meaning that it can applies to all Canadians or all taxpayers.

It seemingly does not apply, either, for Carney’s personal communications such as U.S. President Donald Trump’s late-night text messages.

In that case, Blanchard said that Carney applies strict ethical rules for himself.

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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