PM CONTINUES TO BACK MORNEAU.

Trudeau quashes report on cabinet reshuffle

OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came out in support of his finance minister Tuesday, disputing reports he was considering pushing Bill Morneau aside.

The Globe and Mail first reported late Monday that Trudeau was considering dropping Morneau in a cabinet shuffle. The newspaper reported the Prime Minister’s Office was displeased with Morneau over some of his department’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and over his testimony at the finance committee studying the WE charity scandal.

Morneau revealed at that committee that his family had accepted $41,000 in free trips from the charity, expenses which he said were repaid on the day he went to testify.

The statement from Trudeau’s press secretary Alex Wellstead is unequivocal in its support for Morneau.

“Of course the prime minister has full confidence in Minister Morneau and any statement to the contrary is false. The prime minister knows that Minister Morneau and the entire team of cabinet ministers will keep doing the work that Canadians rely on to get them through this pandemic.”

In addition to crediting Morneau with a central role in many of the economic achievements of the Liberals first term in power, including historically low unemployment and major changes to the Canadian Pension Plan, the statement said he has been a point person in the pandemic response.

“Minister Morneau played the lead role in the creation of the CERB, the wage subsidy, and many other measures to support Canadians and businesses during these difficult times, and he is continuing this important work.”

All of those financial measures have added up to a mountain of red ink for the country, with the deficit expected to be $343 billion this year and the nation’s debt expected to clear $1 trillion.

The speculation around Morneau came as rumours emerged that former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney was considering running for the Liberals in a recently vacated seat in Toronto. Carney, who was also the governor of the Bank of England, is apparently not running for a seat at this time, but if he were to run and win, he would be considered a well-qualified finance minister.

Carney will instead serve as an economic adviser to the country.

A government source with knowledge of the situation said that Morneau was displeased with the sources who had spoken to the Globe and Mail, and asked the prime minister to be clear that he supported him.

Morneau has been Trudeau’s finance minister since the Liberals first came to power in 2015.