The funds were geared toward investments in green energy and infrastructure, holding combined assets of $25 billion
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OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Mark Carney defended Wednesday putting two green investment funds in an offshore tax haven while an executive at investment house Brookfield Asset Management.
Carney told reporters at a campaign stop in Windsor, Ont., that the funds were registered in Bermuda 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. As opposed to taxes being paid multiple times before they get there,” said Carney.
The defence comes after Radio-Canada reported that two Brookfield funds personally overseen by Carney were registered in Bermuda, a well-known tax haven, according to relevant filings in the Ontario Business Registry.
The funds, registered in 2021 and 2023 respectively, were geared toward investments in green energy and infrastructure, holding combined assets of $25 billion.
Both funds were co-led by Carney, according to Brookfield press releases at the time.
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Bermuda, which has historically imposed no taxes on business profits and capital gains, is a common stopping point for complex business ventures that cross multiple jurisdictions.
The Conservative campaign was quick to jump on the Bermuda revelations.
“Mark Carney hid his corporate assets in Bermuda to dodge the taxes that Liberals force on Canadians,” alleged Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in a tweet.
“He never puts Canadians first.”
Poilievre added at an appearance in Montmagny, Que., that the Conservative platform will include measures to crack down on “the types of tax havens that Mark Carney has used to cheat the system.”
But Carney said on Wednesday that the funds served the interests of the millions of Canadian workers whose pensions were invested in them.
“The structure of these funds is designed to benefit the Canadian pension funds that invest in them,” said Carney.
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“The beneficiaries of those funds, teachers, retires, municipal employees, they pay the taxes on their pension. That’s the design.”
Carney was also quizzed on Wednesday about whether he has any remaining personal holdings in either Brookfield or digital payment company Stripe, whose board he joined in 2021.
The Liberal leader told reporters that he currently “own(ed) nothing other than cash and personal real estate” but didn’t give a direct answer to a question about possible future payments from either company.
Carney has been dogged in recent weeks about his past with Brookfield, after spending more than four years as the investment house’s chair and head of transition investing, stepping down in January to run for Liberal leader.
He was tripped up in late February when he gave reporters a misleading answer about his role in moving Brookfield’s headquarters from Toronto to New York, which was quickly exposed when the Conservatives released a letter showing he personally pitched the move to the company’s shareholders.
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He’s also struggled to explain how he plans to create an ethical firewall between himself in Brookfield, which is a major investor in green technology, among other sectors that are highly sensitive to federal laws and regulations.
Brookfield has also been accused using complex arrangements with Bermuda and other international tax havens to stiff the Canadian government out of billions of dollars in corporate tax payments.
One international tax watchdog group said in a 2022 report that Brookfield “may claim the title of Canada’s top tax dodger.
“(T)here is an apparent pattern of aggressive tax avoidance consistent across (Brookfield’s) global operations,” reads the report.
Brookfield has denied that it engages in tax avoidance schemes.
National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com
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