Ontario’s Finance Minister Rod Phillips Resigns after Criticized for his Vacation Trip

Ontario’s Minister of Finance Rod Phillips has resigned from the position on Thursday (Dec 31), after coming back home from his personal vacation trip to Caribbean at a time when the entire province is under a COVID-19 lockdown.

Premier Doug Ford issued a written statement on the same day, a few hours after Rod Phillips came back to Canada, stating that he had accepted the resignation from the cabinet position.

“At a time when the people of Ontario have sacrificed so much, today’s resignation is a demonstration that our government takes seriously our obligation to hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Ford said.

The Premier further informed that he had asked the President of the Treasury Board, Peter Bethlenfalvy, to take on the role of the Minister of Finance and introduce the government’s 2021 budget, overseeing the province’s economy.

Rod Phillips visited Saint Barthélemy Island on December 13, in spite of provincial guidelines urging everyone to avoid all non-essential travels. When he arrived back at the Toronto Pearson Airport on early Thursday, he said that he wanted to keep his job but would respect the decision of the premier because what the premier said will not be an easy conversation between the two.

He also returned home, after the Federal Government announced new travel rules due to the coronavirus pandemic, which included requiring all air travelers to provide a negative result for the COVID-19 testing conducted not more than three days prior to their arrival.

It is expected that the new regulations will enter into force in the coming days. Rod Phillips did not require providing a negative test when he arrived. However, he still requires undergoing self-quarantine for 14 days in accordance with current federal guidelines, which he said he will do.

Rod Phillips said that he deeply apologized for his decision to travel abroad during this period and that there was no one else to blame but himself, calling the trip a “dumb, dumb mistake” and a “significant error in judgment.”

This is a dramatic fall of grace for Rod Phillips. He is a Canadian businessman and a neophyte politician. He has been Minister of Finance of Ontario for only 18 months and only released the first budget in November.