Bill Morneau to sit down with federal ethics watchdog

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Bill Morneau will sit down with the federal ethics watch dog to see what more he can to do reassure Canadians he will not let his personal fortune get in the way of his job.
“The rules work, but what we will consider in my situation is how the population can be absolutely certain there will be no possibility of a conflict,” Morneau said Wednesday in Ottawa as he appeared at a centre for adolescent mothers and their children to promote his fall fiscal update.
“That’s why I will do more than the recommendations,” Morneau said. “That’s why I will work with the ethics commissioner to make sure that the situation that I have had over the past two years, without a conflict, will continue with the confidence of Canadians.”
Morneau said ethics commissioner Mary Dawson gave him good advice when she recommended putting up a conflict-of-interest screen to prevent his family business, Morneau Shepell, from coming into conflict with his duties as finance minister after the Liberals won the 2015 election.
She did not recommend putting his assets into a blind trust, since his shares in the pension firm were held indirectly through private companies.
Morneau promised last week to sell at least $21 million worth of stock and place his other assets in a blind trust, in the hopes of quieting the controversy over how he handled his personal wealth.
Morneau, who is speaking with Dawson Thursday, said he asked for the meeting so they can talk about how he can go above and beyond what has already done to make sure that he does not come into any conflict.
Morneau suggested his desire to move on from the controversy and focus on the good economic news and spending contained in the fall economic statement is one of the reasons he wanted to meet Dawson.
“That’s the work that we want to do,” he said. “That’s the work that I want to do and I’ll be able to stay focused on that.”
But his political rivals, who have been hounding Morneau over the ethics issue following weeks of hammering him over his initial proposals for small business tax reform are not ready to let go of the controversy that easily.
The Conservatives and the New Democrats both devoted much of their time during question period in the House of Commons to the issue.
“We’re not looking for some intimate detail of the finance minister’s personal life,” said Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre.
“We don’t care what he had for breakfast or what kind of socks he wears,” he said. “We do care about the fact that he controls $330 billion of other people’s money . . . What else is he hiding in his vast network of numbered companies and trust funds?”
NDP MP Nathan Cullen, the ethics critic for his party, accused the Liberals of trying to change the channel.
“Canadians aren’t buying it,” said Cullen.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who typically fields all questions in the House of Commons on Wednesdays, accused the opposition parties of doing some deflecting of their own.
“I understand why the opposition has nothing more to do than sling mud today, because the economic news in this country is better than it has been in a long time,” Trudeau said.
Dawson had told Morneau a blind trust would not be necessary, but she has expressed her concerns about that part of the law before.
In 2013, Dawson urged the previous Conservative government to amend the law to require blind trusts for personal assets owned by public office holders, regardless of whether they were directly or indirectly owned.
The change was never made.