ETHI meeting 16 · 2025-11-19 — Committee Evidence — LegisWatch

Summary

The committee was studying conflict of interest compliance mechanisms for the Prime Minister, and heard from Michael Sabia, Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet.

Michael Sabia described a rigorous, multi-layered process for administering the Prime Minister's conflict of interest screen, which includes a blind trust and a screen that excludes the Prime Minister from decisions that could benefit any of 103 listed companies. He stated that the screen has been applied to six situations, with four still ongoing and two now public, and that all 13 situations where the screen was considered were validated by the Ethics Commissioner. He tabled an assessment tool used across the public service and emphasized that the system is designed to err on the side of caution, with constant collaboration between the public service, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Ethics Commissioner. He disagreed with suggestions that the Prime Minister should have divested his assets like he did, arguing the screen strikes a balance between integrity and attracting top talent to government, and he urged the committee not to create barriers that would make it harder to recruit skilled people.

Sabia confirmed he sold his Brookfield shares within 30 minutes of learning of them to simplify his role as screen administrator, but said this was not related to any specific bill or policy. He stated that the screen was applied six times, and that the Prime Minister was not informed of four of those matters before decisions were made public. He acknowledged that he does not know the specific holdings within the Brookfield Global Transition Fund, but said the Ethics Commissioner does, and that any doubt about a potential conflict triggers an immediate screen. He rejected the idea that the Prime Minister's promotion of Canada in the Gulf region, coinciding with a Brookfield AI investment announcement, created a perceived conflict of interest.

The committee discussed procedural matters, including requests for written details on screen applications and the roles of those administering the screen, which Sabia agreed to provide within a week.

AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.

Witnesses · 1

Michael Sabia

Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, Privy Council Office

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I think we all know that democracies around the world are under pressure from lots of different sources—social media disinformation, globalization and a string of health and financial crises. All of them contribute to that pressure. That said, according to organizations from the OECD to not-for-profit organizations like Freedom House, Canada is doing very well in terms of the quality of our democracy relative to the rest of the world. Why is that? I guess there are many reasons, but at least in part, it is the result of a deep-rooted culture of integrity that we are lucky to have here in Canada—the integrity of public office holders and, of course, of the public service. That culture of integrity is the basis on which strong democracies are built. In my view, that's Canada. While culture is hard to measure, as we all know, we do see proof of the quality of Canadian democracy everywhere. It's in our rules, in our laws and in our processes. For instance, all Canadian public servants are subject to a rigorous values and ethics code. Most relevant for today's…

Full testimony ↗

Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics

Summary

Witnesses · 1

Bills mentioned