Bill Morneau: Canada’s finance minister stops at noon for charity probe

The Minister of Finance in Canada has said he will resign after accusations of conflict-of-interest involving WE Charity.

Bill Morneau has to deal with pressure to resign after it was revealed that he did not cover travel expenses covered by WE while he went on foreign trips to see the work.

He said he recently realized he had not repaid the C $ 41,000 in expenses and has since written a check.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is also being checked for his and his family’s involvement in the charity.

Mr. Morneau said he will resign from his position in the Liberal Party cabinet and his role as a Member of Parliament for his Ontario ride, Toronto Center.

What did the Minister of Finance say?

Speaking to the media, the killer said Mr Morneau was no longer the “appropriate person” for his role in Mr Trudeau’s cabinet, but said the WE scandal did not call for his resignation.

“I met with the Prime Minister today to inform him that I did not intend to run again in the next elections,” he told reporters. “It has never been my plan to run more than two federal election cycles.”

The finance minister said his successor should have a “longer term perspective” as Canada tackles its economic recovery amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Mr Morneau has served in the Trudeau government since the Prime Minister was first elected in 2015.

In a statement, Mr Trudeau thanked Mr Morneau for his “exceptional leadership and commitment to service” as well as his “advice, and close friendship” throughout his term.

Last week it was reported that Mr Trudeau had asked former Bank of England and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to be an informal adviser on the Covid-19 recovery plan.

Mr Carney has been shown as a future candidate for the Liberal Party.

Meetings between Mr Carney and the Prime Minister led to reports that Mr Trudeau had plans to dismiss Mr Morneau.

But Mr Morneau on Monday refuted such speculation, denying that Mr Trudeau had asked him to resign.

The Canadian Minister of Finance says he has plans to make a bid to be the next Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – a move he says is supported by the Prime Minister.

What is the WE Charity scandal?

In June, Canada announced that it had tapped into WE Charity – widely known for its acclaimed WE Day conferences – to launch a new program for students hard hit by the economic downturn following the outbreak of Covid-19.

WE Charity Canada would have received up to $ 43.5 million to manage the program under that agreement.

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But it soon became apparent that both Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Morneau had been personally involved in the charity.

Two of the finance minister’s daughters are affiliated with the organization, one of them as an employee.

The more than C $ 40,000 bill – unpaid until this summer – came from two humanitarian trips taken by Mr Morneau and his family to Kenya and Ecuador, where WE work abroad.

“I wish, in hindsight, that we did things differently around the WE Charity,” Mr Morneau said on Monday, adding that he should have dismissed himself from talks related to the grant program.

The Prime Minister is still facing criticism after the news that members of his family were paid to speak at various WE events over the years.

WE withdrew him from the federal program earlier this month because it was “in controversy enmeshed from the moment of its announcement,” the organization said.