Carney on defence as Poilievre, Singh accuse him of using Bermuda ‘tax havens’

Liberal strategist Sharan Kaur speaks about the questions regarding Liberal Leader Mark Carney's assets and whether they could damage him on the campaign trail.

While Liberal Leader Mark Carney wanted to focus on sharing his new promise to protect Canada’s auto sector Wednesday on the campaign trail, he was pressed by other candidates and reporters on his previous job with Brookfield Asset Management.

Carney co-chaired two investment funds—worth $25 billion—while at Brookfield. The funds were dedicated to the transition to a net-zero carbon economy.

According to information obtained by Radio-Canada, those funds were registered in Bermuda, among other locations, and allegedly allowed investors to benefit from tax advantages.

The funds are named Brookfield Global Transition Fund ($10 billion) and the Brookfield Global Transition Fund II ($10 billion) – and the Ontario Business Registry lists them as being registered in Bermuda.

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When asked by a reporter whether it was “ethical” for the funds to be registered in a well-known tax haven, Carney responded that it allowed “an efficiency of a structure” that essentially allowed them to avoid double taxation.

“The important thing… is that the flow-through of the funds go to Canadian entities, who then pay the taxes appropriately,” said Carney in Windsor, Ont., “as opposed to taxes being paid multiple times before they get there.”

He denied the funds were registered in Bermuda in order to avoid taxes, adding that the funds helped millions of Canadians whose pensions were invested in them.

“The beneficiaries of those funds—teachers, retirees, municipal employees— they pay the taxes on their pension,” he said. “That’s the design.”

Poilievre: Carney ‘needs to come clean’ about his assets

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slammed Carney in a post on X this morning, accusing the Liberal leader of hiding his corporate assets in Bermuda in order “to dodge taxes that Liberals force on Canadians.”

“He will always favour tax-havens—because his corporate assets are still hidden in one,” alleged Poilievre.

Later in the day, while on the campaign trail in Montmagny, Que., Poilievre said Carney “needs to come clean about his offshore dealings and how much of his assets are still hidden” in tax shelters.

“I want to put Canada first, but you can’t do that when you all your interests are locked up in foreign interests,” he continued.

Carney was also asked whether he still has personal holdings in Brookfield or Stripe—the digital payment company where he was a board member in 2021—and about his undisclosed assets that he put into a blind trust upon taking office.

A blind trust is a legal arrangement where a person’s assets are managed by a third-party trustee—without the beneficiary’s knowledge of the specific investments. For public officials, this is done in order to avoid conflicts of interests.

Carney said he has “complied with all the rules. In fact, I’ve over-complied with all of the rules in advance,” he said. “So I actually don’t own directly any stocks in those companies, but … since I had worked at those companies, I’ve put in place ethical screens. “

He added that he currently has “nothing other than cash and personal real estate.”

Singh: Carney is ‘avoiding paying taxes’

At a campaign stop today in Hamilton, Ont., NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also accused Carney of registering the two Brookfield funds “for the sole reason of avoiding paying taxes.”

“Right now, it’s tax season. Hardworking Canadians are paying their taxes. They can’t choose to register in Bermuda to avoid paying taxes,” said Singh.

“A couple months ago, he was avoiding paying taxes in our country, and now he wants to be prime minister. It makes me wonder: Is he going to be working for families … or is he going to continue to favour the companies that he worked for, like Brookfield?” asked Singh.

Asked about his own assets during a campaign stop in Quebec, Poilievre said he does not have any investments in tax havens and that he has recently divested some of his foreign holdings.

“After President Trump began threatening our economy, I sold my investments in foreign economies, and now I invest in Canadian stocks and Canadian companies,” Poilievre said. “I brought my money home to this country.”

Groups called for more transparency

The B.C. General Employees’ Union General Fund and the B.C. General Employees’ Union Strike Fund are holders of shares with Brookfield. In 2023, the group tabled a motion asking Brookfield for more transparency about where their money is going.

According to a “Management Information Circular” from 2023, Brookfield voted against this shareholder proposal for more transparency, at a meeting on June 9, 2023. The document outlines shareholders had warned that Brookfield’s “limited tax disclosure” had challenged investors’ ability to “evaluate the risks to our company of taxation reforms, or whether Brookfield is engaged in responsible tax practices that ensure long term value creation for the company and the communities in which it operates.”

The document outlines that shareholders requested Brookfield’s board of directors issue a tax transparency report. But Brookfield responded that it has provided “substantive tax disclosure” for over a decade -- with “recognized reporting frameworks”; and that they were in “full compliance with all applicable tax laws …”

Brookfield put forth multiple reasons why adopting these requested voluntary disclosures would result in disclosures that would put Brookfield at a “competitive disadvantage.” And, in the end, they recommended shareholders vote against it.

With files from CTVNews.ca election writer Josh Freeman and CTV News correspondent Judy Trinh