Bill Morneau

Morneau's parents are William Francis "Frank" Morneau Sr. who came from Walkerville, Windsor, Ontario, and Helen (Lynch) Morneau, who came from Adjala Township, Alliston, Ontario. Their families had deep roots in both areas. Bill Morneau's father, Frank Morneau, founded the actuarial and benefit consulting firm W.F. Morneau & Associates in 1966.

Morneau was born in Toronto at St. Joseph's Health Centre and attended Senator O'Connor College School.[6] From 1981 to 1986, Morneau attended the University of Western Ontario and completed an Honours BA as an undergraduate, he spent one year at the University of Grenoble in France. He then earned an MBA from INSEAD. Morneau eventually went on to earn an master of science (MSc) in economics from the London School of Economics.

He lives in Toronto with his wife Nancy McCain, a member of the New Brunswick family which owns McCain Foods, and has four children—Henry, Clare, Edward and Grace.[7] Grace is originally from Northern Uganda, and the couple sponsored her to join their family in 2010.[8]

Morneau and his wife have made significant donations to international development programs.[9] This has included the founding of a school for refugee girls in Kakuma refugee camp, and the creation of a scholarship program for refugee girls at the University of Toronto.[10][11]

According to the office of the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner public registry, Morneau's assets are currently held in a blind trust and his wife, Nancy McCain, is the beneficiary and owner of various holding companies.[12]

Bill Morneau had demonstrated an interest in business and entrepreneurship from a young age. At 17, Morneau and a friend started a business servicing swimming pools for homeowners, mostly in the Toronto neighbourhood of Don Mills. Morneau ran the business for four years, helping him pay a good part of his university tuition.[6]

W.F. Morneau & Associates was an actuarial and benefits consulting firm; Morneau's father, Frank, founded the company and was the CEO.[13] Morneau joined the company in 1990, and two years later was given the role of president. In 1997, Morneau replaced his father as CEO.[14]

In the years when Morneau ran the firm, the company absorbed competitors across Canada as it grew to become the nation's biggest player in the sector. In 1992, the firm bought the Canadian actuarial consulting businesses of Coopers & Lybrand, followed by the 1997 acquisition of Sobeco, a large Quebec-based pension and benefit businesses, from Ernst & Young. In 1998, Morneau also acquired the Canadian pension consulting practice of Deloitte & Touche.

In 2008, Morneau's firm also bought Shepell FGI—a group that helped companies provide mental health and emotional counselling to employees—and changed its name to Morneau Shepell. As executive chair of Morneau Shepell, Morneau led the firm through a period of growth from a few hundred people in 1992 to almost 4000 employees in 2015 - becoming the largest Canadian human resources services organization, with offices across North America. Under his leadership the firm went through several significant changes, including going public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2005.[15] Morneau Shepell provides over 20,000 organizations representing millions of Canadians with pension, employee benefit, and employee assistance programs.[16]

Morneau is the co-author of The Real Retirement, an analysis of the context and the factors involved in helping Canadians plan for a successful retirement originally published in 2012 with Frederick Vettese.[17]

Morneau was chair of the board at St. Michael's Hospital from 2009 to 2013, and as a board member from 2003 to 2013. He has also served on the board of St. Michael's Hospital Foundation (2013–2015).

Morneau also served as the chair of Covenant House (1997–2000), and chair of the C.D. Howe Institute (2010–2014). He has served as a board member for the Loran Scholars Foundation (2008—2015), the Art Gallery of Ontario Foundation (2004–2011), the Canadian Opera Company (2001–2010), Greenwood College (2012–2015), the Toronto Zoo Foundation (2000–2004), and several others.[18][19]

In 2010, Morneau began leading an initiative with the UNHCR to open a secondary school for refugee girls in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. Opened in 2014, today the school is home to 352 girls, representing 15 per cent of the total secondary school female enrolment in the Kakuma Camp. The day-to-day operation of the school rests with the Windle Trust and its team of 18 teachers, including eight women, and a staff of 20.[11]

Morneau was appointed as pension investment advisor to the Ontario minister of finance, Dwight Duncan in 2012, providing counsel aimed at facilitating the pooling of public-sector pension fund assets.[20] His report led to the eventual establishment of Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, which now pools funds and offers public-sector pension plans lower costs with economies of scale.[21] In 2014, he was appointed by the premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne to an expert panel to advise on how to support the 3.5 million workers in Ontario who would not receive a comparable workplace pension after their retirement. This led to the creation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, which was later withdrawn when Morneau became the federal minister of finance and the Canada Pension Plan was expanded.[22][23][24][25]

During his time as Minister of Finance, Morneau was the subject of intense scrutiny resulting in several investigations by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.

In September 2017, Morneau was fined for failing to disclose to the ethics commissioner a private non-commercial real estate holding company in Avignon, France owned by him and his wife, which owns a family property in Provence, France. Morneau said that this was a result of early administrative confusion which led to only the property, and not the legal structure, being disclosed.[47]

Morneau was also investigated in 2018, over false accusations of insider trading, and in 2020 for his family accepting $40,000 in luxury hospitality from WE Charity, which he paid back before publicly revealing the error. The commissioner determined that Morneau did not breach ethics laws in either of these investigations.[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]

An investigation into Morneau and Justin Trudeau’s involvement in the WE Charity scandal is still ongoing.[55]

Although never investigated by the commissioner, Morneau also received public criticism in the Fall of 2017 for not holding his assets in a blind trust, something he was incorrectly reported to have done. This included a significant number of Morneau Shepell shares. Morneau responded to this criticism by selling the shares, donating a portion of the proceeds to charity, and setting up a blind trust for his remaining assets.[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]

Morneau and his office at the time were also cited in the ethics commissioner's investigation into the SNC-Lavalin affair, which found that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had improperly pressured the minister of justice and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in an ongoing criminal case against Quebec-based construction giant SNC-Lavalin.[64]

In 2016, Morneau released his first budget as minister of finance. Items of note in the budget included $120 billion over 10 years for public infrastructure—focusing on transit, water, waste management and housing—as well as the introduction of the Canada Child Benefit. The budget also included money for First Nations communities, as well as larger seniors and employment insurance benefits.[65]

In 2017, Morneau released his second budget and Canada's first gender-based federal budget. The budget included new federal investments in early learning and child care, more flexible benefits for family caregivers, more support for Indigenous women, and a national strategy to address gender-based violence. Additionally, Budget 2017 included $11.2-billion for an 11-year national housing strategy.[66]

2018's budget continued the theme of greater equality for women in Canada, with money targeting new parental supports, gender equality and anti-harassment initiatives, as well as measures to promote pay equity. The budget also included new investments to tackle the opioid crisis, cope with a surge in asylum seekers crossing the border from the United States and improve living conditions for Indigenous people.[67]

In 2019, Morneau tabled his fourth, and final, budget. The stated goals of the budget were to help Canadians feel a greater sense of financial security, gain new career skills, and be able to afford a first home. This budget also took "initial steps" toward a national pharmacare program by creating a national drug agency with the aim of bulk-buying drugs to lower costs.[68]

• Official website
• Bio & mandate from the Prime Minister
• Bill Morneau – Parliament of Canada biography