Carney’s Brookfield accused of avoiding $5.3B in Canadian taxes

Liberal Leader Mark Carney is being accused of helping Brookfield Asset Management avoid an estimated $5.3 billion in Canadian taxes between 2021 and 2024 while he was still chair of the company.

Carney served in the leadership role at Brookfield before his successful bid to replace former prime minister Justin Trudeau as head of the Liberal Party of Canada.

The federal NDP made the estimate in a report based on Canadians for Tax Fairness accounting methods. 

In total, Brookfield generated $23.3 billion USD in income during that period between 2021 and 2024. 

The NDP concluded that with Canada’s corporate tax rate of 26.4 per cent, Brookfield should have paid $6.1 billion in taxes. Instead, it paid just $2 billion, leaving a tax gap of $4.1 billion USD ($5.3 billion CAD) that Canadian taxpayers ultimately had to make up elsewhere.

Critics have also accused Carney of relying on offshore tax havens like Bermuda to avoid paying taxes in Canada. 

Brookfield’s offshore businesses have been associated with $50 billion worth of assets registered in a single Bermuda building that also houses a small bike shop. 

Meanwhile, CBC confirmed that two Brookfield funds personally overseen by Carney were also registered in Bermuda for tax dodging purposes. 

On Friday, when the Liberal leader was pressed on the tax avoidance claims, Carney downplayed concerns over the company’s use of offshore tax havens by telling reporters, “I’m no longer at Brookfield.”

Further details reveal that Carney co-headed two major Brookfield funds, the $15-billion Brookfield Global Transition Fund and the $10-billion Brookfield Global Transition Fund II. 

Both funds were registered in Bermuda under two separate corporate entities, BGTF Bermuda GP Ltd. and BGTF II Bermuda GP Ltd. 

When questioned, Carney justified the funds’ offshore registration, claiming the structure somehow benefits Canadian pension funds and that some taxes are ultimately paid in Canada. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Carney’s record, stating, “[Carney’s] company, under his watch, put money in Bermuda to avoid paying taxes. All while Liberals force Canadians to pay higher taxes, Mark Carney dodges the bill himself. He thinks millionaires like him shouldn’t have to pay.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called out Carney directly by saying, “Carney chose to register these funds in another country to avoid paying those taxes. That’s less money for health care. Less money for seniors. Less investment in our country.”

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