Bill Morneau to resign as finance minister, MP following breakdown in relations with Trudeau over COVID policy, WE scandal
OTTAWA – Canada’s Finance Minister Bill Morneau will resign as both minister and MP following a week of growing public tension between himself and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over COVID-19 pandemic economic policies.
Morneau, who has been Trudeau’s sole finance minister since his election as prime minister in 2015, will make the announcement during an impromptu press conference Monday evening.
His resignation comes only a few hours after a head-to-head meeting with Trudeau that morning.
Throughout the day, communications staff at the prime minister’s office (PMO) and at Morneau’s office did not answer repeated questions regarding the outcome of the meeting purportedly regarding their rift regarding economic policy decisions during the pandemic.
One senior government source later confirmed that the meeting took place, and said that Morneau was expected to publish a statement in the evening. It was not published by press time.
Over the weekend, multiple media outlets reported that Morneau and Trudeau were scheduled to meet on Monday following a week where tensions between the two men burst into the public’s eye.
Early last week, Bloomberg News revealed that the prime minister had tapped the former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, Marc Carney, as an “informal advisor” for the COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery plan. That fuelled rumours that Carney is eventually aiming to run for the Liberal Party of Canada.
Tuesday, The Globe and Mail quoted anonymous PMO sources saying that Morneau’s job could be in jeopardy, since the prime minister was not committed to keeping him on board for the next phases of the COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery.
The newspaper reported that PMO is displeased with Morneau over how his department crafted some policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the federal wage subsidy. Sources were also quoted as saying there were issues over Morneau’s testimony at the finance committee studying the WE charity scandal.
The story prompted Trudeau’s office to release a statement the following day in support of 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,” PMO spokesperson Alex Wellstead said.
Morneau and Trudeau have recently been embroiled in controversy surrounding their government’s deal to outsource a $912 million student volunteer grant program to WE Charity. Last month, the Ethics commissioner opened an investigation into both their dealings on that file.
Both men and their families have close ties to the Toronto-based organization. Prime Minister Trudeau has spoken at multiple major events for the organization up until 2017.
The WE organization also confirmed having paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees to his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, his mother, Margaret Trudeau, and his brother Alexandrew Trudeau.
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In Morneau’s case, two of his daughters have either worked with or for the organization in recent years.
Then a few weeks ago, Morneau revealed to the finance committee that he had omitted to reimburse $41,000 in free travel offered by WE to his family and himself back in 2017 until the day before the committee meeting.
Morneau’s department has also been frustrated with the prime minister’s office over the last few months, particularly because of a perceived lack of concern with the cost of multiple COVID-19 aid packages as well as an absence of analysis before announcing new measures, according to multiple media reports.
A source with direct knowledge of the discussions confirmed this information to National Post. They were granted anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss these matters publicly.
The fact that the rift between Morneau and Trudeau suddenly burst into plain sight recently irked many former influential Liberals, including Trudeau’s former Principal Secretary Gerald Butts.
“Liberals are more lethal to Liberals than are any competing partisans. Canadians have little patience for this stuff in the best of times, and these are not those,” Butts wrote on social media on Monday.
“Friendly advice to former colleagues: knock it off, unless you miss losing,” he continued.
“Always. Always. Always,” Jamie Carroll, former national director of the Liberal Party of Canada, responded on Twitter.
More to come