From Trudeau to Carney, Canada’s Big Projects Plan Risks Same Cycle of Self-Dealing, Squandering, and Foreign Influence

By Elbert King Paul, CPA, CA

Editor’s Note
The writer is a former partner of a national accounting firm and a registered Liberal who has served seven leaders of the Liberal Party, including four prime ministers. He has subject expertise in real estate development in both the public and private sectors.

VANCOUVER — Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced the launch of a Major Projects Office dedicated to accelerating nation-building initiatives. Most would agree Canada can and must unlock its vast potential to secure prosperity and safety. But if the serious vulnerabilities outlined here remain unaddressed as Ottawa prepares to push forward with this transformative plan, hidden outcomes that undercut transparency and security could undermine the very purpose of Carney’s effort—to rebuild a stronger nation.

The key unresolved matters involve vulnerabilities to foreign interference and the impacts of global money, along with a lack of protections for whistleblowers, while gaps in ethics and transparency persist.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Alleged Conflicts of Interest

Democracy Watch, in a July 14, 2025, release, called on Prime Minister Carney to sell his investments, including stock options in more than 550 companies, to eliminate what it described as significant financial conflicts of interest. The group has denounced Carney’s so-called blind trust and ethics screen as riddled with loopholes that allow him to influence decisions from which he could personally profit. It is urging reforms to federal law—closing loopholes in ethics and lobbying codes, lowering donation limits, and strengthening oversight of government watchdogs.

Similar concerns extend into the Prime Minister’s inner circle. On September 5, 2025, the Globe and Mail's reporting raised unresolved concerns about Tom Pitfield, the Prime Minister’s principal secretary, focusing on his ties to both the Trudeau and Carney governments and Big Tobacco. Pitfield's significant stake in Data Sciences and his spouse Anna Gainey's government role are cited as possible conflicts, especially as critics say his links to tobacco interests undermine federal efforts against tobacco use and youth vaping.

Significantly, foreign interference flagged by the Hogue Commission has not been confronted, including the urgent need for a foreign agent registry. An inquiry into Chinese interference in Canadian elections reveals that Beijing has orchestrated extensive networks to support preferred candidates and target critics, primarily through funding and directing local community associations via diplomatic channels.

As detailed in my January 2025 op-ed, Inside the Liberal Party’s Data Machine, which outlined the party’s continued links from Trudeau to Pitfield and his spouse Anna Gainey, I urged Ottawa to implement a foreign agent registry like those in the United States and Great Britain, a step made more crucial by the Hogue findings and recent billion-dollar announcements from the Prime Minister including the establishment of the Major Projects Office.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party’s own website still carries a header image of Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney under the 2021 campaign slogan “Forward. For Everyone.” This image signals continuity, not change.

Additionally, as raised by Mayor Brad West in his August 2025 op-ed for The Bureau, the corrosive impact of offshore cash on major projects remains ignored. British Columbia's housing market is showing signs of instability reminiscent of past financial bubbles seen in Ireland, Spain, and the U.S., with slowing sales, stalled developments, rising debt, and increasing youth unemployment. The current economic model, heavily reliant on real estate, is unsustainable, and the province must shift towards innovation, productivity, and balanced immigration to avoid severe fallout and ensure long-term prosperity.

Finally, whistleblowers remain unprotected, as Ottawa has also failed to rebuild public trust through transparency and accountability.

On whistleblower protection, the evidence is damning. According to the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada’s whistleblower laws are ranked worst in the world, tied with Lebanon. The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act has cost taxpayers over $100 million in 16 years, yet it has never protected a single whistleblower. As David Hutton wrote in the Globe and Mail on May 19, 2023, other nations are strengthening protections while Canada weakens. As E. von Scheel reported in 2019, experts have called Canada’s framework a “tissue paper shield.”

Transparency International Canada, in its August 19, 2025, submission to the Financial Action Task Force, confirmed the above serious unresolved issues. The submission urged a call to action for more robust laws to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing including more reporting mechanisms to combat financial crime.

As I asserted in my January 2025 op-ed, only full disclosure and decentralization of financial relationships among key Liberal Party stakeholders can rebuild public trust.

In summary, if Canada is to authentically strive for a liberal democracy that delivers economic opportunity, equality, transparency, accountability, and the capacity for self-critique, we should remember the wisdom in Proverbs 11:2-3.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”