Mark Carney likes to tell Canadians that trust in government has to be earned. So here is a simple test. The Prime Minister’s longtime friend runs a company that just landed the biggest contract in its history from Ottawa. The Prime Minister has an official ethics screen to keep him away from conflicts. That friend and that company are not on it.
On November 3, CTV News reported that Conservative MP Jamil Jivani has sent a five-page letter asking Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein to look at the ties between Carney and Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg, and to examine whether the Conflict of Interest Act was broken. The Prime Minister’s Office would not tell CTV whether Carney had ever disclosed the friendship to the commissioner.
The contract
On August 4, the federal Defence Investment Agency awarded Telesat an initial contract worth about $2.3 billion for Arctic military satellite communications, with two option periods worth roughly $214 million and $218 million more. Telesat’s own release calls it the largest contract in the company’s history, worth $2.7 billion with the options, and says it lets Telesat immediately expand its Lightspeed network from 156 to 225 satellites, paid for through government milestone payments.
The market noticed. Bloomberg reported Telesat shares jumped 32% in a single morning, the biggest intraday move since August 2023.
This was not a long, open competition. The government chose a “strategic partner” model, naming Telesat and MDA Space as partners in December 2025 and negotiating from there. As CBC News reported, the award was expedited over a matter of months.
The friendship
None of this is a secret. According to CTV’s reporting, the Carney–Goldberg friendship goes back nearly two decades, to when their children played in the same soccer league. They became running partners. Goldberg visited Carney in London when he ran the Bank of England. Since Carney entered politics in 2025, Goldberg attended a leadership campaign event and both of Carney’s swearing-in ceremonies. This year he was also appointed to the federal government’s strategic exports advisory council.
Meanwhile, Carney has acted as something close to a pitchman. CTV notes he told the New York Times in September that Canada would “diversify” away from Starlink using Telesat’s coming constellation, and he promoted the company in his official NATO summit statement.
The screen that skips the obvious
Here is the part that should bother every taxpayer. Carney does have a conflict-of-interest screen. It walls him off from companies where he held management or oversight roles, like Brookfield. His own published ethics disclosure, as quoted by CTV, says these screens exist “to minimize the possibility of conflicts” between public duties and the private interests of the office holder, “or those of their relatives and friends.”
Friends. It’s right there in the text. Yet Goldberg and Telesat are not named.
Compare that with AI Minister Evan Solomon, who is also a friend of Goldberg. CTV reports Solomon is under an ethics screen covering both Goldberg and Telesat. So the government clearly understands that this friendship can create a conflict. It just didn’t apply that standard to the man at the top.
At the House ethics committee last week, CTV reports, the commissioner seemed unaware of the Carney–Goldberg connection and told Conservatives they could write to him to request a review. His office now says confidentiality rules stop it from explaining why no screen was in place. That is the problem in a nutshell: under this system, a screen only works if the office holder flags the conflict first.
“Trust us” is not a safeguard
The Prime Minister’s Office says Carney “was not involved or consulted” on the decision to partner with Telesat. The Privy Council Office told CBC his screen “is respected at all times.” Goldberg says the deal was handled at arm’s length and that he never asked Carney for money, contracts, or favours.
Maybe so. But Canadians can’t check. As Jivani’s letter puts it, an informal assurance from the PMO “is not published in your registry, it has no designated administrator, and the public cannot verify how it works.” Back in August, Conservative defence critic James Bezan asked for the contract terms and the decision process to be released. As CBC noted, cabinet confidentiality and commercial secrecy keep those under wraps.
And when the PMO was asked on Monday whether it still stands by its October statement that Carney took part in no decision or discussion about Telesat or Goldberg, CTV reports the spokesperson did not answer.
The next bill could be bigger
The stakes may grow. CTV reports Telesat faces US$1.7 billion in debt coming due within about five weeks, which the company says it cannot repay and hopes to refinance, and it is being sued by creditors. Jivani argues it is “highly likely” Ottawa will have to act to keep Telesat solvent.
If that day comes, who will be in the room? Under the current rules, nobody outside the PMO can say for sure.
There’s one more irony. Carney pitches Telesat as Canada’s sovereign answer to Elon Musk. Yet Bloomberg notes the satellites will ride into orbit on SpaceX rockets.
The fix is easy
Carney could end this today. Name Goldberg and Telesat in a formal, published screen, the same standard his own minister already follows. Release what can be released about how the contract was awarded. A Prime Minister who calls himself “most useful in a crisis” shouldn’t need an opposition letter to apply his own ethics rules to his own friends.
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