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François-Philippe Champagne, US-Canada Summit, Toronto, Apr 4, 2023
US-Canada Summit, Toronto, Apr 4, 2023. Photo: Eurasia Group, CC BY 2.0.

The Board · The Liberal family

François-Philippe Champagne

Finance. Innovation 2021 to 2025

An agency he answered for signed agreements worth a reported $327,796 with Bionest, the firm his father chairs. A Bank of China mortgage while at Foreign Affairs.

StoryCabinet

Strings on the board

  • Frank Baylis: Recusal, 3 Feb 2022, over Boston Scientific’s purchase of Baylis Medical (public registry)
  • SDTC: Industry minister SDTC reported through in 2023; ISED’s RCGT fact-finding review, 20 Mar to 1 Sep 2023

The stories · 5 on the record

The National Research Council at 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Aug 19, 2026Photo: Hayden Soloviev, CC BY 4.0

Oct 15, 2026

An agency Champagne answered for funded the firm his father chairs.

He stepped aside in public for an acquaintance. His registry shows no such step for his father.

From August 2022 to October 2023 the National Research Council, which reported to Parliament through François-Philippe Champagne as Innovation minister, signed 4 contributions worth a reported $327,796 with Bionest, the Shawinigan firm his father chairs, in which a trust he benefits from holds interests. His Finance screen of October 2025 is co-administered by his own chief of staff and deputy minister, and his registry, searched 15 October 2026, holds no declared recusal for Bionest.

Also pinnedand 1 more: Frank Baylis
Case fileFrançois-Philippe ChampagneOct 15, 2026
François-Philippe Champagne, US-Canada Summit, Toronto, Apr 4, 2023

Oct 15, 2026

Champagne's brother faced 11 counts. A judge wrote the acquittal was negotiated.

No preliminary inquiry, no trial, and reasons the Crown says will not be made public.

The Journal de Montréal reports that a judge wrote that Guillaume Champagne's lawyer "a réussi à négocier un acquittement" (succeeded in negotiating an acquittal), with no preliminary inquiry and no trial, and that in 2013 Guillaume Champagne pressed his lawyer to have the file resolved because his brother, François-Philippe Champagne, was seriously studying a run for Parliament. Quebec's prosecution service says its reasons will not be made public. Nothing on the record shows the future minister took a step in the case, and we do not say he did.

The sign at the James Michael Flaherty Building, 90 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Sep 1, 2019Photo: Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0

Oct 15, 2026

The firm his father chairs got federal deals. He now holds the purse.

His fixes: a filing, a refinancing, and screens, the latest co-administered by his own chief of staff.

As Innovation minister, François-Philippe Champagne answered to Parliament for the agency that signed 4 contributions with Bionest, the firm his father chairs. As foreign minister, he owed a Chinese state-run bank a reported $1.2M. As Finance minister, he faces questions because Anne-Marie Gaudet, whom CTV calls his partner, works for Alto, the rail Crown corporation his budget set out to fast-track. His fixes were a filing, a refinancing and screens, the latest co-administered by his own chief of staff and deputy minister. Today he holds the purse.

Also pinnedand 1 more: Frank Baylis
A LifeLabs laboratory's sign on Woodbine Avenue, Markham, Ontario, Dec 20, 2019Photo: Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Scalable Grid Engine, CC0

Oct 15, 2026 · with Anita Anand

Anand's department gave her spouse's employer's lab a contract.

She stepped out of the file six days after the award.

In June 2021 Anita Anand's procurement department gave LifeLabs, which said that year it was owned by OMERS Infrastructure, a border-testing contract with a ceiling of up to $111.0M. Six days later she recused herself. Her spouse works at OMERS Infrastructure Management. On the public registry, LifeLabs first appears on her conflict screen on 12 May 2022. The year before, her department signed for ventilators from a firm with a former Liberal MP's company as its subcontractor, and she told MPs she "couldn't pick him out of a crowd".

Also pinnedAnita Anand, Press conference at the Pentagon, Apr 28, 2022and 1 more: Frank Baylis
Case fileNavdeep BainsOct 15, 2026
Navdeep Bains, Collision conference, Toronto, May 22, 2019

Oct 15, 2026 · with Annette Verschuren

SDTC's chair moved the motions that paid her company. Ottawa was there.

The government had a man at the table, and it knew nobody recused from the COVID payments.

In March 2020 and again in March 2021, the board of Ottawa's green-tech fund voted COVID cash across its portfolio, including to companies its own directors had declared conflicts with, and the Ethics Commissioner found the chair broke the Conflict of Interest Act "knowing that NRStor would benefit". An assistant deputy minister from Industry regularly attended its board meetings and was in the room for the COVID decision. The department knew no one recused from the COVID payments, and did no audits of the fund from 2017 to 2023. Now Industry has told the Commons that the fund's board chose not to chase the money, because recovery "was not likely to be successful, and not in the public interest", and that the department accepted it.

Also pinnedNavdeep Bains, Collision conference, Toronto, May 22, 2019Steven Guilbeault, COP15, Montreal, Dec 7, 2022Dominic LeBlanc, Press conference, Mar 6, 2023Gary Lunn, Economic Action Plan announcement, Mar 29, 2010and 5 more: Annette Verschuren, Andrée-Lise Méthot, Leah Lawrence, Andrew Noseworthy, Stephen Kukucha

Photo credits