Ottawa, ON – Michael Barrett, Conservative Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, issued the following statement proposing a committee study into the apparent conflicts of interest between Prime Minister Carney’s finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, and the Alto high-speed rail project:
“Conservatives will be bringing forward a motion to investigate François-Philippe Champagne’s connections to the Alto high-speed rail project and his claims that he recused himself from decisions about the project. The motion calls on the finance minister, along with the Conflict of Interest Commissioner and executives from Alto, including the CEO, to testify.
“Alto is the most expensive project in Canadian history, at up to $90 billion. Yet of the $700 million spent since 2022, not a single metre of track has been built with taxpayers footing the bill for another bureaucracy that’s great for insiders but delivers few results for Canadians.
“What’s worse is that one of those insiders has a proven relationship with the minister in charge of paying for the project. Multiple media reports describe Anne-Marie Gaudet, Vice-President of Environment at Alto, as living with and being the partner of Minister Champagne, including The Globe and Mail, noting ‘the couple spends weekends together at their home in the Grand-Mère sector of Shawinigan.’
“Reports of their relationship extend back a number of years, with Radio-Canada reporting in 2019 that Champagne was ‘accompanied by his partner Anne-Marie Gaudet’ at the nomination meeting where he was confirmed as the Liberal candidate for Saint-Maurice—Champlain. In a 2020 Mother’s Day post, Champagne called her ‘my spouse’, establishing at the very minimum a common law relationship between the two.
“Yet despite consulting with the previous ethics commissioner about the need for a conflict of interest screen when his partner worked at the Port of Québec, Ms. Gaudet is not listed on any of Champagne’s disclosures with the conflict of interest commissioner. That includes no information about the “conflict of interest filter” he claims, in a letter released last week, to have been established last September.
“This is in spite of the fact that Section 22(3) of the Conflict of Interest Act requires that relatives be added to their conflict of interest disclosure, stating that: ‘a minister of the Crown … shall make reasonable efforts to include in the report the information referred to in subsection (2) for each member of his or her family.’
“His other actions may have breached other parts of the Act. Section 6(1) prohibits public office holders from making decisions or participating in making a decision that would further the private interests of a relative or friend. Legislation to advance Alto was committed to in the budget Champagne introduced on November 4, 2025, and the High-Speed Rail Network Act was subsequently introduced on his behalf as part of the Budget Implementation Act, 2025, No. 1.
“Section 6(2) further prohibits public office holders sitting in Parliament from debating or voting on issues which would further the private interests of a relative or friend. Not only did Champagne introduce and vote for the budget motions that contained support for Alto, but on February 25, 2026, he voted against a report stage motion which would have dropped the High-Speed Rail Network Act from the budget implementation bill, voting to safeguard the project his partner’s employer is advancing.
“All of this leaves Canadians with lingering questions: if the Prime Minister was informed in September, why was the recusal letter not released at the time publicly? And if Champagne claims he is recused from Alto-related business, why did he participate in parliamentary votes and debates about the project?
“All of these questions deserve clear answers. Under the Liberals, ‘investment’ has meant benefiting well-connected insiders at the expense of taxpayers. Conservatives will ensure that ethical rigour is always followed when spending Canadians’ money and that the government is held to account.”