Conservatives say Champagne is avoiding committee study into Alto rail connection

The Canadian Press has reached out to Champagne’s office for comment on Barrett’s accusation but has not yet received a statement.

After questions arose in the media about Champagne’s connection to Alto, the finance minister’s office shared a letter he sent last September to Prime Minister Mark Carney and to von Finckenstein.

The letter states that Champagne was proactively implementing a conflict-of-interest screen “due to a personal connection to someone close to me in the organization, to safeguard against any real or perceived conflict of interest.”

Champagne’s office said the minister has not participated in any discussions or decisions tied to Alto since then. His office also said the initial funding for the project was announced in February 2025 and allocated in the main estimates in 2025, all before Gaudet was hired.

A compliance officer in the ethics commissioner’s office wrote to Champagne earlier this month to say there was no risk of a conflict because “Alto is a Crown corporation accountable to Parliament through the minister of transport and as minister of finance you have no decision-making authority over matters of human resources at Alto, you do not have an opportunity to further the interest of any specific Alto employee.”

Barrett has formally asked the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner to investigate.

He pointed out that the government included legislation to enable the Alto project in its omnibus budget bill, which Champagne introduced and championed in Parliament.

“Why wasn’t the bill with respect to the high-speed rail network act brought forward by the transport minister and not by the finance minister?” he asked.

During the ethics committee’s last meeting, MPs debated for hours but did not vote on whether the minister should appear to answer questions.

The Liberals have four members on the committee, while the Conservatives have four and the Bloc Québécois has one. That means opposition members could outvote the government members and request that Champagne appear.

“This is the opposite of what the prime minister said that Canadians should expect from parliamentarians at committee, and it is counter to the basic accountability that Canadians should demand of all parliamentarians,” Barrett said Thursday.

Earlier this week, Carney told reporters that his new majority Liberal government would engage in serious debate and accused the opposition of “showboating” and filibustering in committee.

Now that the Liberals have a majority, they could vote in the House of Commons to change the makeup of committees. Majority governments historically have held a majority of seats on committees — a key step in the legislative process where bills are scrutinized and amended.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Conservatives say Champagne is avoiding committee study into Alto rail connection

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