Carney’s Conflicts Exposed
Ottawa, ON — Michael Barrett, Conservative Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, released the following statement on the revealing committee testimony about the millions of dollars Mark Carney will receive from Brookfield as performance pay:
“Today, Brookfield COO Justin Beber confirmed that 95 per cent of Brookfield-owned and operated companies are not included in Mark Carney’s ethics screen. That’s 1,900 other companies that will enrich Prime Minister Mark Carney if they perform well.
“Canadians also discovered that the senior Brookfield executive flew to meet Mr. Carney in the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa this October. Beber said he ‘took the afternoon off’ to lobby the Prime Minister on issues he claimed weren’t Brookfield-related. But this private meeting with a Brookfield executive didn’t trigger the ethics screen – the opposite of what the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff and the Clerk of the Privy Council said should happen.
“There appears to be a pattern of Mr. Carney granting preferential access to his Brookfield executives. In April, Brookfield subsidiary NorthRiver Midstream lobbied him directly. In May, Carney met the CEO of Brookfield Infrastructure, Sam Pollock, in Washington, DC.
“Mr. Sabia and Mr. Blanchard, the two individuals responsible for Prime Minister Carney’s ‘conflict of interest screen,’ do not have the list of investments held by the Brookfield Global Transition Fund, which is directly tied to Mr. Carney’s performance pay from Brookfield. They also do not know the full list of companies or businesses that have the largest impact on Mr. Carney’s future Brookfield payouts.
“What’s worse is that both Mr. Blanchard and Mr. Sabia can be fired by the Prime Minister for any reason, giving them an incentive to act in Mr. Carney’s interest. That might be why Mr. Sabia told the committee that even if there is overlap between Brookfield’s investments in modular housing and the government’s support for modular homes, they wouldn’t be subject to a conflict of interest screen – despite the decision benefiting Mr. Carney’s future performance pay.
“Mr. Sabia already made clear in his testimony that he couldn’t do his own job of managing Mr. Carney’s conflicts without selling his Brookfield assets. Yet the Prime Minister is keeping his assets from Brookfield despite being able to make political decisions that affect Brookfield’s profits. Beber also confirmed that the Prime Minister could have liquidated his Brookfield assets, including stock options and deferred shares.
“Last month, expert testimony at the Ethics Committee revealed shortcomings in the Conflict of Interest Act that allow the Prime Minister to make decisions that benefit Brookfield and, by extension, his shares, options and performance pay. The testimony from the Clerk of the Privy Council, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff and the Chief Operating Officer of Brookfield confirm that the so-called ethics screen is not catching anything.
“Canadians should know that their leaders will govern in pursuit of the national interest, not personal gain. It is now clearer than ever that the only way Canadians can have confidence in Mark Carney is for him to sell all of his shares, options and performance pay from Brookfield. Anything less means Carney is putting personal profits before Canadians’ trust.”