Image Credit: Facebook / Bill Morneau

By James Peters

Morneau Resignation

‘They were looking for a scapegoat’: Kamloops MP says Morneau resignation all about WE scandal

Aug 17, 2020 | 5:31 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Conservative MP for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo says today’s resignation from Finance Minister Bill Morneau is no surprise — but it is of great concern.

Morneau said it was the right time to resign and that he is seeking the role of secretary-general at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

But Cathy McLeod says it’s clear the resignation is a direct result of the WE Charity scandal.

“It was very obvious, ever since the WE scandal broke that there were leaks from the Prime Minister’s Office all of the sudden talking about a rift (between Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) and I don’t believe it. I believe it relates to the ethics and it relates to the WE scandal,” McLeod told CFJC Today.

Both Trudeau and Morneau are under investigation by the ethics commissioner for conflict of interest in their relationships with the WE organization, which was briefly awarded a massive government contract earlier this year.

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McLeod says the Liberal government wants Morneau to take the fall.

“In my opinion, they were looking for a scapegoat. What we have is an unethical scandal in terms of how they’re spending money, their relationships with different groups and they’re diverted from what is the important job right now, which is, ‘Where are we going to go next?'”

Though the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars responding to the economic devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, McLeod notes it has not delivered a new budget, a task that will be thrust upon Morneau’s successor.

Morneau is the only finance minister the Trudeau government has had since it was first elected in 2015.

“You have to be knowledgeable, you have to be insightful, you have to be experienced. We will be putting, likely, a rookie minister in the role who is going to have to get up to snuff in terms of what is happening and it’s a real challenge,” McLeod said. “We don’t have a budget. All we have is the government spending enormous amounts of money.”

“We are in the middle of a significant crisis. We have the only finance minister who’s experienced who hasn’t even presented a budget. So we’re in a very difficult position as a country.”