Conflict rules not broken as Carney vacations with MP
Matter may follow top banker to new U.K. job
The Bank of Canada said Monday that its governor, Mark Carney, did not violate conflict of interest guidelines by vacationing this summer at the Nova Scotia home of a Liberal MP, but at least one expert says the central banker appears to have breached the rules.
At the very least, Carney’s judgment has now suddenly been called into question — just months before he leaves his job to take on a posting as governor of the Bank of England.
As well, the revelations have reportedly prompted some British MPs to say that they will use a “pre-appointment hearing” for Carney’s new job to review his political leanings.
On Monday, Canada’s central bank confirmed parts of a weekend report in the Globe and Mail newspaper which stated that Carney and his family stayed, as guests, at the home of Liberal finance critic Scott Brison.
The story also reported how some Liberals have pursued the bank governor as a potential leadership candidate — although the bank says Carney did not contemplate a jump to politics.
Bank spokesman Jeremy Harrison confirmed that during their summer vacation, Carney and his family travelled to Nova Scotia.
But he said that the Bank of Canada’s general counsel, who is responsible for enforcing the bank’s conflict of interest policy, “has assessed that this visit does not breach the bank’s conflict of interest guidelines in any way. “
Harrison said that conclusion was reached for three reasons:
Neither the bank or Carney, have an “actual or potential commercial or business relationship” with Brison.
Carney’s “acceptance of hospitality provided by a personal friend” does not stem from “activities associated with official bank duties.”
The vacation stay at Brison’s home cannot “be defined as partisan or political activity.”
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who has had a close working relationship with Carney since his 2008 appointment, was asked Monday about the governor’s vacation at Brison’s house.
“I have no comment on any of that,” Flaherty told reporters.
However, an expert in ethics said Monday he disagrees with the bank’s conclusion on whether Carney was in conflict.
“He has brought the impartiality of the bank into question and the policy says that that is a violation,” said Duff Conacher, founding director of Democracy Watch and adjunct professor of law at the University of Toronto.
“Given that Brison is the Liberal finance critic and the timing that we now know — that there was an act of appeal from Liberals to him — I think it crosses the line.”
The bank’s conflict of interest policy and associated guidelines are spelled out in a 14-page document.