MLA Responsibilities

The Conflict of Interest Act outlines the financial disclosure requirements for a Member that must be provided within 60 days of their election. The Member, their partner, and their minor children are required to disclose their investments, assets, companies, and liabilities to the Commissioner. The information is updated each year the Member is in office.

How does a Member avoid a conflict of interest?

The Commissioner provides advice upon request about how best to arrange personal affairs so that Members and their families are not placed in a position that might give rise to a conflict. The Commissioner is available to offer informal advice or an official opinion, should a Member have a question or a concern.

What information does the Member have to tell the Commissioner?

Private disclosures capture the Member's financial, business, and community status for twelve months before their election, and for twelve months into the future. Specifically, the disclosure looks at:

• Sources and amounts of income;
• Descriptions and values of assets, including all investments and properties owned;
• Details about ownership of companies;
• Details of any contracts with the government of P.E.I.;
• Descriptions and values of liabilities, including mortgages and credit cards;
• Description of directorships and volunteer positions held;
• Details of pension entitlements;
• Details of all unpaid taxes;
• Details about ongoing lawsuits and any ongoing support obligations;
• Details of any guarantees given or loans co-signed.

Members complete a set of Private Disclosure Forms which they review in a meeting with the Commissioner to ensure the forms are complete, and to allow the Commissioner to provide advice to the Member.

What about the Member's family?

Everyone who is part of a Member's immediate household - a spouse/partner, minor children, or dependent adult children - are required to disclose the same detailed financial information a Member is required to disclose (listed above).

Partners are welcome to attend the Commissioner’s meeting with the Member to review the completed forms so they have a chance to ask questions and find out more about how the Office of the Conflict of Interest Commissioner is there to help.

What information is available to the public?

Part of the Commissioner's job is to make selected details of a Member’s private disclosure into a public disclosure statement, along with selected details of any partner’s or children's private disclosures. These public statements never include details or specific dollar values, but do include:

• All sources of income exceeding $5,000 for the year;
• All assets and liabilities valued at $5,000 or more (with some exceptions). This includes ownership interest in a business and any contracts with the P.E.I. government;
• Details of any board or volunteer positions you hold

Public disclosures for currently-elected Members are provided to the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly and posted on the Legislative Assembly's website so they are available to the public.
 

Are there extra restrictions for Ministers?

While serving in Cabinet as a Minister, Members have additional restrictions placed on their personal financial, investment, and business interests. 

A Cabinet appointment brings with it additional restrictions for a Member. As a Minister, a Member cannot:

• continue their regular employment;
• manage a business;
• hold directorships not related to their duties as a Minister (unless in a social club, religious organization, or political party); or
• hold or trade in stocks and securities (including those held in a self-administered RRSP or RESP).

If a Minister wishes to keep their business interest(s), stocks, and securities, they must be put into a trust managed by a trustee at arm's length from the Minister. 

Both the trustee and the trust agreement must be approved by the Commissioner, and the trustee must report each year on the status of the trust.

Likewise, there are additional restrictions on a Member’s activities once they step down from a Cabinet position: for twelve months after leaving a Cabinet appointment there are restrictions placed on a Member to prevent a conflict of interest. Unless they are accepting a contract or benefit that relates to further service of the Crown, no former Minister can:

• accept a contract or benefit approved by Cabinet or a government department;
• lobby the government on any contract or benefit; or
• accept a contract or benefit from someone contracted by the Member’s former department.

Can Members accept gifts?

As elected officials filling a position of public trust, Members can only accept gifts in two circumstances:

• if the gift is offered as part of the customs, protocols or social obligations required by the Member’s responsibilities of office; or
• if, in the Commissioner’s opinion, the gift was not intended to influence the Member’s performance of their duties.

Any gifts the Member receives in either of these circumstances must be disclosed to the Commissioner if a one-time gift, or a series of gifts from the same source within 12 months, exceeds $200 in value. The Commissioner then includes the gifts in the member’s public disclosure.

Members can accept gifts from family and friends in normal gift-giving situations, such as birthdays and anniversaries.