Pierre Poilievre

[Ethics, October 18th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has been asked a clear question: When did he know that his Minister of Finance held $40 million in Morneau Shepell? He totally dismissed that as a petty question, because the pensions of Canadians apparently are petty to the Prime Minister.

The minister regulates pensions and his company profits from pensions, which is an obvious potential conflict of interest. Therefore, once again, when did the Prime Minister know that his Minister of Finance had $40 million invested in Morneau Shepell?

[Ethics, October 18th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, based on public filings, Morneau Shepell has been sending million-dollar cheques to the millionaire finance minister. He has continued to own shares in a publicly traded company that he regulates. This is the finance minister, the man who is supposed to regulate our financial markets, and yet he has a $40-million secret stake in one of the most powerful companies in the country.

When did the Prime Minister learn these facts?

[Ethics, October 18th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister is actually staying focused on something else and that is growing his family fortune. He used a loophole in order to get around the ban on ministers owning stocks. This is the finance minister, the country's most powerful financial decision-maker, and he kept secret from the Canadian people over $40 million of investments that he had in a company that he regulated.

When did the Prime Minister learn that?

[Ethics, October 18th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister used a loophole to keep himself invested in a financial company that he regulates. He earned $13 million, while finance minister, through the use of that loophole, all the while going across the country calling honest plumbers and farmers tax cheats. When did the Prime Minister know that his finance minister had shares in Morneau Shepell?

[Ethics, October 18th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, ministers are banned from owning stocks. To get around that, the finance minister stuffed his stocks in a numbered company in Alberta. The finance minister earned $13 million in gains from a financial company that he regulates. When did the Prime Minister learn that his finance minister had over $40 million in stocks in a company that he regulates?

[Ethics, October 17th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance had spokespeople from Morneau Shepell tell the media that his Morneau Shepell shares were in a blind trust. He had the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families tell me on Twitter that his holdings were in a blind trust. He told the media himself two years ago that he suspected that his holdings would go into a blind trust. We know now that none of that was true. We also know that Morneau Shepell has holdings in the tax haven of Barbados.

When did the minister sell his shares in Morneau Shepell?

[Ethics, October 17th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance started by saying he had revealed all of his holdings to the Ethics Commissioner. Now we know he has an offshore company in France that he did not disclose.

He then said to the media, “I suspect all my assets will go into a blind trust.” That was two years ago. We now know that this did not happen either. Finally, he claimed that the Ethics Commissioner told him he should not put his holdings in a blind trust. Today she testified under oath that she told him no such thing.

We cannot believe the Minister of Finance. When did he sell his shares?

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, it is particularly galling that the finance minister would hide his own multi-million dollar investments from Canadians after he has travelled across the country, wagging his fingers at pizza shop owners, plumbers, and family farmers. He has called them tax cheats. He said they have tried to game the system to avoid paying their fair share. He has accused them of using loopholes. Now he is the one who is looking for a way around the rules to prevent Canadians from knowing what interests he holds. He is not prepared to hold himself to the standard he imposes on everyone else. Where I come from, that is called hypocrisy.

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, there are two issues here. One is, did the finance minister follow the law? The second is whether the finance minister is acting in the public interest.

Let us start with the law. The finance minister appears to have broken the law in failing to report his offshore private corporation in France. With respect to the $30 million in shares he owned and may still own in Morneau Shepell, he may or may not be in compliance with the law. However, it is not enough to follow the law; that is the bare minimum. It is not enough for him to say, “Oh, I found a loophole, I do not have to report what I own because I managed to slide it into a family trust or I stashed away those shares in a private corporation and therefore they are out of public view. That loophole protects me from transparency.”

That is not enough because the second standard I mentioned is the public interest. Consequently, even if the minister has found a way, with all the best lawyers and consultants and lobbyists, to benefit from a loophole from the law—loopholes are something he was attacking not so long ago—he still has to uphold the public interest. That is his duty in this place. Our role is to uphold the public interest, and the only way we can do that in this case is if he is transparent about his private interests.

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, the member is correct in pointing out that the Prime Minister and finance minister have been given great fortune. The previous government left a balanced budget and a growing economy, the strongest balance sheet in the G7 by far and the lowest debt. That strong financial situation has, of course, allowed Canada to withstand the damaging policies that the Prime Minister has so far enacted over the last two years. We also see a much faster growing global economy, one in which the United States and the rest of the world are finally starting to recover from the original financial crisis that the Conservative government was able to help Canada withstand.

That great fortune is landing in the lap of the Prime Minister and the finance minister, and they have a lot of experience inheriting great fortunes. The question is what they will do with it. Will they return to a balanced budget? Will they lower the tax burden so that hard-working people can continue to earn a better life for themselves and their families? Will they build upon the Conservative record, which reduced poverty to its lowest level on record and resulted in the biggest increase in median incomes on record? Will they build upon that successful low-debt, low-tax record, or will they squander this fortune they have inherited?