The prime minister is going to need a spreadsheet to keep track of all the CEOs he’s not allowed to talk to.
Driving the news: PM Mark Carney will have to recuse himself from any discussions involving over 100 companies as part of his conflict-of-interest screening. Included on that list are Brookfield Asset Management and Stripe, two companies where he held senior leadership positions.
Catch-up: Carney might be the Canadian prime minister with the highest-profile business career, but conflict-of-interest questions have long hung over PMs who have come over from the private sector.
- Former PM Paul Martin was criticized for exempting Barbados from Ottawa’s offshore tax reforms while he was finance minister. The shipping company Martin used to run, Canada Steamships Lines, had major operations on the island.
- Brian Mulroney, who was a business exec and lawyer before becoming PM, admitted to inappropriately accepting a $225,000 payment from an arms dealer that he had worked with while in office on an aircraft purchase for Air Canada.
Why it matters: With Carney’s government planning to tap the private sector to get major infrastructure projects off the ground, steering clear of any shred of conflict will be all the more important. That’s especially true for policies that impact the kinds of assets his former firm, Brookfield, is known for investing in: utilities, transportation, and pipelines.—LA