Finance minister isn’t in conflict, Trudeau says

Morneau Shepell has many clients, including the federal Office of the Auditor General

OTTAWA— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says “there is no conflict of interest” in Bill Morneau’s role in approving a multimillion loan to Bombardier despite his holding shares in Morneau Shepell, which does pension work for the aerospace giant.

Nevertheless, Morneau will proceed to sell those shares and meets with Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson Thursday to discuss the next steps to divest of his stock in the pension giant — steps she assured were unnecessary two years ago because the shares were “indirectly” controlled by his corporations.

After the Star revealed Morneau participated in government discussions to give financial aid to Bombardier, the Conservatives demanded to know when the prime minister first learned of the Morneau Shepell contract, drawing a line between it and the Bombardier bailout last winter. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer told the Commons it was a bad deal for Canadians who “are stuck with the bill for subsidizing it, except for Morneau Shepell.

“When did the Prime Minister learn that the finance minister had a personal interest in the Bombardier deal?” Scheer said. Opposition MPs also say Morneau stood to benefit from Bill C27, a pension reform bill he has sponsored in the Commons.

Trudeau didn’t directly answer, but gave a rousing defence of his minister, saying he strictly followed Dawson’s advice and so Canadians could have confidence there was no conflict of interest.

Morneau Shepell has worked with a wide range of clients in the public and private sectors. Morneau told the Star that when he resigned, it had some 20,000 clients. Those include Canada Post, the Bank of Canada, the Alberta government and TD Bank.

Morneau Shepell has done audit work for the federal Office of the Auditor General, an independent officer of Parliament, in connection with its work on the Canada Pension Plan, the Star has learned.

The auditor general’s office replied to Star questions by email, saying Morneau Shepell is a recognized supplier of audit services under a standing offer agreement set up before 2015. Since the October 2015 election, it says, only one contract valued at $24,638.52 has been awarded. That is just under the $25,000-threshold at which government departments and agencies must seek competitive bids.