Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau is resigning from his cabinet position, he announced at a press conference late Monday afternoon.
Calls for Morneau's resignation began when it was revealed that he forgot to repay $41,366 in travel expenses to We charity. The charity has been the focus of recent ethics investigations.
Bill Morneau will step down as MP of Toronto Centre and will seek the office of secretary general for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. During the press conference, Morneau said he had Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's full support in his new endeavour.
At the press conference, Morneau highlighted some of his accomplishments including the number of jobs created over his tenure and pulling one million Canadians out of poverty. Morneau also said he was not asked by the Prime Minister to resign. He added that it was always his plan to only serve two terms and said that Canada needed a more long-term finance minister to take the country through the pandemic recovery.
During Morneau's five-year term that started with the Liberal Party's 2015 majority, he has been involved in numerous controversies. In 2017, he was fined for failing to disclose a non-commercial real-estate holding company in France. In 2018, he was cleared by the Ethics Commissioner from Opposition accusations of insider trading and was also cited in the Commissioner's SNC-Lavalin investigation.
