Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to media during a news conference at Canada House in London on March 17, 2025.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney declined Monday to reveal the value of the financial assets that he placed in a blind trust after he formed a new Liberal government last week.
In a testy exchange with reporters in London, where he met King Charles III and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Mr. Carney sidestepped questions about the value of his financial holdings and details of his assets and investments.
“I followed the rules of the Ethics Commissioner. I followed them well in advance of any of the requirements,” he said.
Mr. Carney appeared annoyed when reporters reminded the former central banker and corporate executive that Canadians would not know what potential conflicts of interest exist until after the coming election. Mr. Carney is expected this week to trigger a federal election for either April 28 or May 5.
The Conflict of Interest Act that outlines ethics rules for federal public-office holders gives individuals up to 60 days after taking office to make a confidential report to the Ethics Commissioner. The office holder has 120 days to make some of that information public.
“What possible conflict would you have?” Mr. Carney snapped. “I am complying with the rules.”
Mr. Carney defended his refusal to publicly declare the value and details of his holdings by saying he entered political life for the good of the country and not to enrich himself.
“I have served in the public sector. I have stood up for Canada. I have left my roles in the private sector at a time for crisis for our country,” he said. “Your line of questioning is trying to invent new rules. I’m complying with rules that Parliament has laid out.”
The confidential report to be filed within 60 days must include a description of an individual’s direct and contingent liabilities, a breakdown of all sources of income over the past 12 months, their charitable work over the past two years and “any other information” the commissioner considers necessary.
Mr. Carney’s team said last week that he currently does not own anything outside of the blind trust other than cash and real estate. But he has not disclosed the value of the assets, nor what was divested. No details were provided as to what potential conflicts of interest would be subject to the management plan.
The Conflict of Interest Act says divestment can take one of two forms: selling the controlled assets in an arm’s-length transaction or placing it in a blind trust.
Conservative MP and ethics critic Michael Barrett has been calling on Mr. Carney to provide more clarity as to how his assets and potential conflicts of interest are being managed.
“Now after spending weeks refusing to disclose his financial interests, Carney is snapping at journalists who are simply asking him to be transparent with Canadians. And still he refuses to disclose anything to the public until after an election,” he said. “What is Mark Carney hiding?”
Mr. Barrett said the new Prime Minister needs to publicly declare the full extent of his financial interests in Brookfield Asset Management, which he chaired until he resigned to run for the Liberal leadership. Mr. Barrett said Mr. Carney must also disclose the other private-sector investments that he managed, including the Global Transition Fund (BGTF I), the second Global Transition Fund (BGTF II), and the Catalytic Transition Fund (CTF), amounting to $27.4-billion in assets.
As well, the disclosure should list any carried interest, stock options or deferred compensation that he may hold in the blind trust, Mr. Barrett said.
Mr. Barrett said Canadians must also be shown the conflict-of-interest plan that he presented to the Ethics Commissioner and whether he would recuse himself from government policy decisions where Brookfield funds have interests.
“Carney ridiculously claims that he has no conflicts but he knows exactly what assets he was invested in and what policies could affect the value of those assets,” Mr. Barrett said. “He must immediately disclose all his financial interests and he must reveal to Canadians what he told the Ethics Commissioner in his so-called ‘conflict-of-interest plan.’”
The former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England also stepped down as chair of the board of media and financial data company Bloomberg LP; the board of payments processor Stripe Inc.; an advisory board for investment giant PIMCO; and as UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and co-chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, or GFANZ.
Duff Conacher, co-founder of the advocacy group Democracy Watch, criticized the use of blind trusts by senior decision-makers.
“A blind trust is a sham façade that hides and does not prevent financial conflicts of interest because the politician knows what investments and assets they put in the trust,” he said.
With a report from Bill Curry.
