First, this screen is allowed under the Conflict of Interest Act. Section 29 of the act reads as follows:
Before they are finalized, the Commissioner shall determine the appropriate measures by which a public office holder shall comply with this Act and, in doing so, shall try to achieve agreement with the public office holder.
The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the conflict of interest screen was an appropriate measure that we could use.
In the case of Mr. Carney, he divested himself of all his interests, which is a lengthy list. You have it in front of you. He put it all in a blind trust. However, he knows what this trust entails, naturally. We want to avoid a situation where he would make a decision knowing that it would increase the value of one of the companies he divested. For that reason, we set up this screen. The chief of staff and the Clerk of the Privy Council have to review every decision that the Prime Minister has to make and determine whether it will have an impact on a particular company. If it is determined that a decision is not a general decision, but one that has an impact on a particular company he has divested from, he will be told that he must recuse himself. However, if the decision is a general one that doesn't affect a specific company, he isn't required to recuse himself.