Federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Finance Dominic LeBlanc spent a night at the James D. (Jim) Irving mansion following a party hosted by the billionaire in December. He denies any conflict of interest.
The Globe and Mail is behind the revelation of a potential new conflict of interest involving Dominic LeBlanc.
The Toronto daily revealed that the elected official and his wife, Jolène Richard, participated in a Christmas celebration in the company of New Brunswick’s political and economic elite at Jim Irving’s in Rothesay, before sleeping there.
The federal member for Beauséjour was Minister of Public Security at the time of the events. He became finance minister on December 16, after the resignation of Chrystia Freeland.
“Mr. LeBlanc and Mr. Irving have been friends for decades. This is why, in order to avoid any conflict of interest, real or perceived, Minister LeBlanc has adopted an anti-conflict of interest filter to ensure that he does not participate, in his capacity official, questions or decisions that could have an impact on Mr. Irving’s business relations,” declared his spokesperson, Gabriel Brunet.
The anti-conflict of interest filter in question has been in place since 2016. Mr. LeBlanc had disclosed the friendship that has existed between his family and the Irvings for two generations to the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner (CCIE) of the House of Commons. He had just obtained a ministerial post.
Under this filter, Mr. LeBlanc’s chief of staff is responsible for ensuring that his superior refrains from participating in any decision specifically concerning Jim Irving and his companies, but not those of a “general scope.”
“Mr. LeBlanc informed the Deputy Minister of Finance of the existence of this filter,” declared Mr. Brunet.
He assures that the elected official has always been very attentive to consulting the CCIE each time an issue likely to be analyzed by his office arises.
“Undue influence”
“It’s a conflict of interest,” said an international anti-corruption consultant, Donald Bowser, regarding the night spent by Mr. LeBlanc at Jim Irving’s house. It’s a conflict of interest because this type of business leader exercises undue influence over political parties.”
Mr. Bowser criticizes the mechanisms supposed to avoid conflicts of interest of Canadian politicians.
“Both at the federal and provincial level, it is a real farce. No one really enforces international standards on ethics or conflicts of interest, he says. There is a culture of abuse of power.”
The professor of political science at Mount Allison University, Mario Levesque, also judges that Mr. LeBlanc lacked ethics by sleeping at Jim Irving’s house.
“It shows us once again that he is in the pocket of big companies,” he said. The world sees this. Why would he vote afterwards? This government is finished, rotten, we need to get it out of there. But those who come in next are going to do the same thing. A group of oligarchs will replace another group of oligarchs. Our democracy is more than fragile.”
Lots of suspicion
Mr. LeBlanc has been suspected of conflicts of interest several times.
In 2023, his sister-in-law, Martine Richard, obtained the position of CCIE. His appointment provoked criticism from opposition parties. She lost the job shortly afterward, although Mr. LeBlanc said he avoided playing a role in her appointment.
In 2019, the elected official took a plane from the Irving family to obtain treatments in Montreal, because his blood cancer prohibited him from taking a commercial flight. He had obtained CCIE approval, but could have paid for a charter flight himself.
The same year, CBC revealed that five candidates personally linked to Mr. LeBlanc were awarded judicial positions in New Brunswick, out of six vacancies in total.
In 2018, the CCIE concluded that Mr. LeBlanc found himself in a conflict of interest when he was Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Coast Guard. The elected official had failed in his obligation to recuse himself from a process of issuing a fishing license when his wife’s cousin was linked to one of the bidding companies.
In 2003, Mr. LeBlanc used an Irving family plane free of charge for several trips, without declaring them to the CCIE.
