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

François-Philippe Champagne bought flats in London, in 2009 and 2013, while he was an executive in Britain. The mortgages came from the Bank of China. They were on his first ethics filings as an MP, in March 2016.

He joined cabinet on 10 January 2017, as International Trade minister. From 2018 he filed a screen for his father and for Bionest, the Shawinigan firm his father chairs, at each of these portfolios: International Trade, Infrastructure, Foreign Affairs, Innovation and Finance. Under the Finance screen he will "recuse myself from any discussion or decision in relation to my father or to Bionest Technologies". That screen, of October 2025, is "co-administered by my Chief of Staff and Deputy Minister".

In November 2019 he became foreign minister, still owing the Chinese state-run bank. His first filings since the election went up on 4 June 2020. Days later the Globe and Mail reported the mortgages: $1.7M when taken out, $1.2M still owing. The Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer, called it "pretty big leverage". A Global News column said he had not taken "any steps to move or refinance the loans". On 23 June he told MPs both were repaid and refinanced with a Canadian bank: "Parliament has other things to do than focus on my apartments." The debt sat beside the office from November 2019 to June 2020. The fix came after the story.

In January 2021 he took Innovation, and with it the National Research Council, which reported to Parliament through him. In February 2022 a decision on the sale of Baylis Medical reached his desk. He handed it off on the public record, because Frank Baylis was "an acquaintance of mine as a former caucus colleague". In August 2022 the council signed the first of 4 contributions with Bionest. By October 2023 they came to a reported $327,796. His screens said no conflict "has arisen". His registry holds no declared recusal. The public step-aside on his registry was for someone else.

In February 2025, while he was still at Innovation, Ottawa committed $3.9B to the co-development of Alto, the Crown corporation planning high-speed rail between Toronto and Quebec City. In March he took Finance. In August Anne-Marie Gaudet, whom CTV calls his partner, became Alto's vice-president of environment. In September he told the Prime Minister he was applying a "filter" to Alto "due to a personal connection to someone close to me in the organization". CTV reported that his chief of staff and the deputy finance minister run it. In November his first budget proposed "legislation to accelerate the development of Alto high-speed rail".

The public learned of the filter from the press in April 2026. His registry had no card for it. The Conservatives' ethics critic, Michael Barrett, wrote that he "may have breached subsection 6(2) of the Act on 12 separate occasions" by moving and voting on the Alto measures, and the ethics committee, after a Liberal filibuster, voted to call him. Canadian Press reported that he had recused himself from Alto decisions the previous September. His own answer: "I've respected all the rules". On 11 June 2026 the Commissioner backed him. The link "is simply too remote", he did not have to recuse himself on Alto, and the filter was not published because the Office had not required it. The rules held. In our read, that is the problem with the rules.

The agreements with Bionest kept coming: one for a reported $30,000 in June 2026, while he ran Finance. Since he joined cabinet, the total agreed is a reported $606,796.

Today he holds Finance and National Revenue. His registry for 2026 shows World Cup tickets, declared as he should. It still shows no recusal for Bionest.

The screens the Commissioner required are on his registry, and his Finance screen says he will "recuse myself from any discussion or decision in relation to my father or to Bionest Technologies". The Bank of China mortgages were declared from 2016 and repaid in 2020. On Alto, the Commissioner's office told him no screen was needed and he applied a filter anyway; the Commissioner told MPs on 11 June 2026 that his involvement "is simply too remote to provide an opportunity to further the private interests of an Alto employee". In his words: "I've been very, very transparent, very upfront."

Disclosure is not distance. On Bionest he has filed a screen at each of his 5 portfolios since 2018; in our read, because the interest is real. The Finance screen of October 2025 is co-administered by his own chief of staff and deputy minister, and his registry, searched 15 October 2026, shows no declared recusal for Bionest. The mortgages were repaid "to avoid any distractions" in June 2020, after he had been foreign minister since November 2019 and after the press had reported them. On Alto the Commissioner cleared him, and we say so. In our read, that shows how low the rules set the bar, not how high he cleared it.