CONSERVATIVE shadow minister for ethics, Peter Kent, and shadow minister for finance, Pierre Poilievre, issued the following joint statement on the NDP’s motion calling on Finance Minister Bill Morneau to apologize to the House of Commons and Canadians for sheltering his wealth and hiding his financial assets:
“Andrew Scheer’s Conservative Party believes that all Parliamentarians, regardless of their professional background, must follow all conflict of interest and ethics rules.
“Finance Minister Bill Morneau is [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau’s right hand man. Mr. Morneau is responsible for pension laws, budgetary spending, and the mortgage rules; no one has more power to enrich a company and its shareholders than the Finance Minister.
“With these massive financial powers should come absolute financial transparency. Yet Justin Trudeau and his Finance Minister have failed to provide that transparency to Canadians.
“The Finance Minister broke the rules when he failed to report his off-shore private corporation and he exploited an ethics loophole to shelter his personal wealth by placing it in a numbered company. Only when he was caught did he disclose his off-shore private corporation, and offer to put his assets in a blind trust.
“This leaves Canadians to wonder, what else are the Finance Minister and Justin Trudeau hiding? Canadians have a right to know, and to find out, we need to know what investments the Finance Minister has hidden in his complex network of numbered companies and trust funds.”