Why Is Mark Carney Refusing To Disclose His Assets?

Why Is Mark Carney Refusing To Disclose His Assets?

The following is a transcript of the remarks delivered by Michael Barrett, Conservative Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, on March 18th, 2025. Check against delivery.

March 18, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, ON – We are here again today because Mark Carney refuses to disclose his assets and conflicts of interest.

He doesn’t understand why the media and opposition keep asking questions.

Every time he’s asked about his connections to Brookfield Asset Management or his conflicts, he becomes defensive, deflects, and attacks.

Remember what he told all of you – and all Canadians – after the Liberals’ English leaders’ debate in Montreal: “I do not have a connection with Brookfield Asset Management.”

I am sure each and every one of you saw his exchange with reporters in London yesterday. Did that sound like someone who has no connection to Brookfield?

And recall what his office answered last week: “Despite repeated attempts…Carney’s transition team have declined to clarify if the new prime minister still possesses any financial interest in Brookfield.”

Apparently, Mark Carney doesn’t think Canadians deserve to know before they vote and apparently, he thinks answering questions on it is beneath him.

When he was asked about moving his Brookfield headquarters to America, he lied to Canadians.

When he’s asked about his assets, he says he doesn’t have any conflicts and attacks the motives of the ones asking the questions.

But this isn’t about his style of answering media. The question is why is he so defensive when asked?

We know from media reports that Mark Carney was very likely owed future bonus payments from the multi-billion-dollar Brookfield Funds he personally set up and managed.

And these bonus payments are directly tied to the performance of investments he made at Brookfield.

So, what else do we know about the specific Brookfield funds set up by Carney? While Brookfield doesn’t provide a full list of projects and companies they are invested in, we know they’ve invested billions into solar panels, wind turbines, infrastructure, heat pumps, alternative fuels, and countless other sectors associated with the so-called ‘green transition.’

But also important is the question of which companies and industries did Brookfield and Carney bet against – wanting certain sectors to succeed over others.

And perhaps most importantly, which countries did Brookfield and Carney bet on, and which did they bet against?

Brookfield is not the most transparent company, but they are slightly more transparent than Carney personally. And through their public filings, we have some hints.

Mark Carney was appointed chair in the latter half of 2020. Using the most recently available data, for 2021-2023, we can see that Brookfield’s reported assets in the US increased by 23% – and declined in Canada by 4%.

That’s right. Just as Carney moved his headquarters to America, while he was chair, Brookfield was investing more and more in the United States and pulling back in Canada. For years.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons Carney is so hostile when asked these questions.

We also know that Mark Carney handed over what he called a “full and robust conflict of interest management plan” to the Ethics Commissioner last week.

And yesterday he bluntly denied having any conflicts of interest.

How can somebody claim to have no conflicts when just last week he told the commissioner he has so many conflicts that he needs a “full and robust” plan to manage all of them?

Why won’t Carney share this supposed conflict of interest plan with Canadians, so they can see for themselves?

Brookfield investments touch on huge areas of public policy: energy policy, environmental policy, industrial policy, taxation policy and infrastructure policy. I could go on and on. Is Carney planning on recusing himself from government discussions and decisions in these areas?

Some of you might recall when Nigel Wright was hired as Stephen Harper’s chief of staff 15 years ago. Because of Wright’s prior private sector work, he had to recuse himself – leaving the room entirely – when certain files came up.

Will Mark Carney be doing the same? Why won’t he answer?

And Wright was a staffer, carrying out the direction of elected officials. Carney, as Prime Minister, is the chief decider.

This so-called “blind trust” of his doesn’t protect him. Why? Because these aren’t stocks and ETFs like normal Canadians have, that a trustee can buy and sell freely. No, he raised the money from international billionaires and made the investments. He knows exactly what is in there. And those Brookfield funds are locked in with long-term contracts.

The only people blind to Carney’s assets and conflicts are Canadians because he refuses to tell them the truth.

Mark Carney is twisting himself into a pretzel trying to hide his assets and conflicts from Canadians, avoiding answering any questions.

I am not sure exactly how much attention Mark Carney has been paying to Canadian politics the last decade…but conflict of interest is a very serious thing.

The Carney-Trudeau Liberals have been repeated violators of conflict of interest laws.

Justin Trudeau himself twice.

If Mark Carney is going to go to Canadian voters and ask for a fourth Liberal term, he needs to be transparent.

He could do that today.

We are calling on Mark Carney to immediately disclose all of the assets that he put into his blind trust and release his “full and robust Conflict of Interest Management Plan.”

If Carney has nothing to hide, he should have no problem doing so.

We know he has them on file.

Get it done, today.