More businesses tied to Liberal leader Mark Carney’s ex-investment firm Brookfield Asset Management have been discovered in Bermuda, with the latest being registered to an address that also houses a local bicycle shop.
First reported by CTV News, the latest entity indicates a pattern for Brookfield, the company that Carney chaired from 2022 up until entering the Liberal leadership race, of maintaining a cozy relationship with the tax haven.
The country is well-known to the ultra-rich as one of the world’s best tax havens. The country offers major tax breaks, including a zero corporate income tax rate up until last year.
News of Carney’s decision to invest billions of dollars into offshore bank accounts in Bermuda on behalf of Brookfield first came to light last week when it was discovered that two of Brookfield’s pension funds, worth a combined $25 billion, were registered there.
When asked why he chose not to keep these investments in Canada by a reporter, Carney responded by saying that he “understands how the world works” and is well-versed in global finance.
The Conservatives have been hammering Carney to disclose his assets ahead of election day so that Canadians can have a better understanding of who they are voting for but he has repeatedly refused to do so.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre made his investments public last week despite not being legally required to do so by law and dared Carney to do the same.
Poilievre released an updated list of his investments and announced that he sold all of his investments in foreign economies to “bring it home to Canada.”
However, it’s not just Carney’s rivals that want to see him make public any potential conflicts of interest, it’s voters themselves.
The vast majority of Canadians want Carney to fork over such details before they go to the polls.
According to a new national survey, 67 per cent of respondents said the time has come for Carney to “voluntarily reveal his business interests.”
The Liberals ran on a campaign promise of allocating the Canada Revenue Agency more resources to quash tax dodgers during the 2021 federal election.
However, the results bore little fruit, if any.
“The government did modestly increase funding for the Canada Revenue Agency to go after wealthy tax cheats, improve Canada’s general anti-tax avoidance rule, and implement the Global Minimum Tax Act, however, nothing was done to address the biggest channel for tax evasion and avoidance: the bilateral tax treaties that Canada has with tax haven.” wrote non-profit group Canadians for Tax Fairness in February.
Poilievre called the latest Bermuda-Brookfield revelation a sign that “Canadians can’t afford a 4th Liberal term.”
“Carney hid his company’s money in Bermuda to avoid paying the high taxes he forces Canadians to pay. He could have chosen Canada but instead, Carney sheltered his company’s money overseas and moved his headquarters out of Canada to New York City,” wrote Poilievre to X.
“Carney put Canada last. Canadians can’t afford a 4th Liberal term. Time to put Canada First for a change.”