OTTAWA— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says “there is no conflict of interest” in Bill Morneau’s role in approving a multi-million loan to Bombardier despite his holding shares in Morneau Shepell, which does pension work for the aerospace giant.

Nevertheless, Morneau will proceed to sell those shares and meets with Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson Thursday to discuss the next steps to divest of his stock in the pension giant — steps she assured were unnecessary two years ago because the shares were “indirectly” controlled by his corporations.

After the Star revealed Morneau participated in government discussions to give financial aid to Bombardier, the Conservatives demanded to know when the prime minister first learned of the Morneau Shepell contract, drawing a line between it and the Bombardier bailout last winter.

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer told the Commons it was a bad deal for Canadians who “are stuck with the bill for subsidizing it, except for Morneau Shepell, which has contracts with Bombardier.

“When did the Prime Minister learn that the finance minister had a personal interest in the Bombardier deal?” said Scheer. Opposition MPs also say Morneau stood to benefit from Bill C27, a pension reform bill he has sponsored in the Commons.

Trudeau didn’t directly answer but gave a rousing defence of his minister, saying he strictly followed Dawson’s advice and so Canadians could have confidence there was no conflict of interest. The prime minister accused the Opposition of “slinging mud,” playing politics, and trying to distract from Morneau’s fall economic update showing how well the economy was doing under the Liberals.

In shirtsleeves, Morneau went Wednesday to Ottawa’s Youville Centre that serves teen mothers and children to highlight promised increases to payments for working families and low-income individuals.

He said Dawson advised him two years ago he only needed one “screen” to prevent any conflict of interest that could arise in his role as finance minister — only around his Morneau Shepell shareholdings — because “I didn’t hold any other shares and didn’t do any other trading and wouldn’t do any other trading over the course of that time.”

Morneau stopped shy of directly answering questions about what other publicly traded securities are held by the numbered Alberta company he set up in 2005 to hold the Morneau Shepell shares, or by a separate Ontario numbered company that has control over the Alberta corporation, or by any other family trust. Morneau’s spouse is Nancy McCain of the McCain food empire, and Morneau is a beneficiary of the McCain family trust. “That was the only screen that she thought was necessary because I did not have any other control over any assets that required that screen,” he added when asked to clarify.

“In my opinion, she gave me good advice. She found a way to be certain to ensure that I didn’t have any conflicts. That’s been the case for the past two years. But what I can say now is if it’s necessary to do more than I’ve done, more than was recommended, I’ll do it.”

Morneau Shepell has worked with a wide range of clients in the public and private sectors. Morneau told the Star that when he resigned, it had some 20,000 clients. Those include Canada Post, the Bank of Canada, the Alberta government, and the TD Bank.

Morneau Shepell has done audit work for the federal Office of the Auditor General, an independent officer of Parliament, in connection with its work on the Canada Pension Plan, the Star has learned.

The auditor general’s office replied to Star questions by email, saying Morneau Shepell is a recognized supplier of audit services under a standing offer agreement set up before 2015. Since the October 2015 election, it says, only one contract valued at $ 24,638.52 has been awarded. That is just under the $25,000-threshold at which government departments and agencies must seek competitive bids.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“We engaged them to provide professional services to assist the OAG (Office of the Auditor General) audit team in conducting the audit work related to the actuarial obligations in the context of our financial audit of the Canada Pension Plan,” said Vincent Frigon, a spokesman for the auditor general Michael Ferguson. He said the office sometimes needs to hire outside auditors because of the volume, timing, and diversity of topics in the kinds of audit work it does.

Read more: Morneau Shepell ties to Bombardier flag ‘minefield’ for finance minister: Opposition critics

Bill Morneau dismisses objections to his participation in Bombardier loan discussions

Read more about: