Mark Carney refuses to proactively disclose assets

The Conservatives are calling out Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney for doing only the bare minimum when it comes to disclosing – and managing – his sizeable wealth.

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The Conservatives are calling out Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney for doing only the bare minimum when it comes to disclosing – and managing – his sizeable wealth.

Carney’s campaign told reporters that, if elected Liberal leader on Sunday, Carney will “not merely comply with all applicable ethics rules and guidelines, but surpass them.”

“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,” wrote his campaign in a statement to the Toronto Star Wednesday.

Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett said that this isn’t enough, however.

“I know that you would like to consider this matter closed following comments you and your campaign have made to media, signaling your intent to follow existing conflict of interest laws,” said Barrett in a statement Thursday. “But such commitments are hollow and wholly unsatisfactory.”

He went on to say that after a “decade of your Liberal colleagues engaging in countless ethical violations and conflicts of interest, you might believe that following the letter of the current law is sufficient. But Canadians deserve better.”

Carney has come under fire in recent weeks for staying mum on the details of his wealth and holdings and what he may stand to gain if he becomes prime minister.

Barrett penned an open letter to Carney last month telling him that “Canadians expect transparency and deserve better.”

Barrett pointed to the fact that Carney had already been protected from an ethics disclosure by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he was appointed as an economic adviser.

The Tories have asked Carney to provide the immediate disclosure of his financial assets and “all potential conflicts of interest.”

The Liberals will select their new leader on Sunday, with Carney the presumptive winner.

Only after being sworn in as prime minister will Carney’s ethics obligations kick in. He will have 60 days from then to disclose his private assets to the ethics commissioner and then an additional 60 days to finalize everything before a public disclosure is made.

“While you present this as going above and beyond the requirements, it is, in fact, the bare minimum required by law,” said Barrett.

Furthermore, Barrett called the law “insufficient” in Carney’s case because “this four-month period of zero transparency would allow you to assume office – and potentially go through an entire general election – without being honest with Canadians.”

Fellow leadership candidates Chrystia Freeland and Karina Gould have already undergone the process of disclosing their assets by virtue of having been in cabinet.

Both Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh did the same before taking their respective positions.

Carney has had considerable success in the private sphere over his lengthy career, with 13 years at Goldman Sachs and board positions with major corporations like Bloomberg LP, Brookfield Asset Management and Stripe, the world’s largest privately-owned fintech company valued at over $70 billion last year.

Carney was called out by a small business advocacy group for his involvement with Stripe due to its allegedly predatory practices. The Trudeau government negotiated a deal with Stripe to decrease credit card fees and pass the savings onto small businesses but it was later revealed that Stripe withheld the money.