Nine Carney-linked companies are lobbying the government

Nine companies in which Prime Minister Mark Carney once held financial interests have lobbied his office since he took power in March, according to filings from the federal ethics commissioner.

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Nine companies in which Prime Minister Mark Carney once held financial interests have lobbied his office since he took power in March, according to filings from the federal ethics commissioner and the federal lobbying registry.

The disclosures, released Friday by the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, show Carney declared investments in 567 entities through a third-party managed fund.

The commissioner noted Carney “did not control or direct the selection of investments,” and those holdings are not subject to conflict-of-interest screening.

A separate list of 103 companies has been placed under an ethics screen, covering firms with which Carney had direct ties before entering public office, including Brookfield Asset Management and Stripe.

Among them are NorthRiver Midstream, Inter Pipeline and Westinghouse Electric, three firms linked to Brookfield. Brookfield entities are explicitly listed 29 times.

NorthRiver and Inter Pipeline both signed a joint letter in April with 36 energy companies lobbying Carney to accelerate resource development approvals.

Cameco, which co-owns Westinghouse with Brookfield, has held multiple lobbying meetings with Carney and his staff, including on March 19, April 2 and June 27.

Cameco’s director of communications, Veronica Baker, said the meetings involved CEO Tim Gitzel’s role on the Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations, an appointment made under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

During the French-language leaders’ debate in April, Carney praised companies including Westinghouse, Cameco and Candu for their roles in advancing Canadian nuclear energy.

In a press conference last Monday, Poilievre called on Carney to sell off all his assets and “explain why he misled Canadians about potential conflicts of interest.”

Poilievre said the ethics filing, which identified 103 assets requiring recusal, revealed a “cornucopia of conflicts of interest” that he says contradicts Carney’s campaign claim that he owned “nothing but cash and real estate.”

“Mr. Carney was not up front or honest with Canadians during the election. He made numerous false statements, statements he would have known were false when he made them,” Poilievre said.

“We have a prime minister who is going to be constantly distracted by his private interests when the public interest is in such desperate need of attention.”

He also criticized Carney’s repeated campaign claim that his assets were in a blind trust, saying, “It is not blind if everyone knows what’s in it.”

“He knowingly owned 574 stocks and deferred profits and stock options in Brookfield and other companies,” Poilievre said. “That is not a blind trust, that’s a mirror.”

Several companies included in the third-party fund have also lobbied the Prime Minister’s Office since March, such as Ford Motor Company, which lobbied Carney on April 2 over U.S. tariffs on Canadian exports of steel, aluminum and critical minerals.

Lockheed Martin, the U.S. defence contractor, lobbied Carney’s senior adviser Oz Jungic in May and June regarding export permits and defence procurement.

Lockheed currently holds a $19-billion federal contract for 88 F-35 fighter jets.

While Carney ordered a review of the deal in March, he affirmed the deal in June.