Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau is resigning.
In a media briefing tonight Morneau says it was never his intention to run for more than two election cycles and he informed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today that he would not run again in the next election.
Morneau is immediately stepping down from his roles as Finance Minister and MP for Toronto Centre. Morneau says he will now begin to prepare to run for the position of Secretary-General of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.
Both Morneau and Trudeau are the subjects of a House of Commons Ethics Committee investigation on their involvement with WE charity where both men have close personal family ties with the organization that was given an almost billion-dollar contract to run a youth volunteer program.
Morneau says he was not asked to resign by the Prime Minister. He says he does regret he did not recuse himself from the discussions surrounding the WE Charity. Morneau disclosed during testifying that he repaid $41,000 in travel expenses the morning of his ethics committee testimony for a trip he and his family had taken with the charity group.
