NDP MP Niki Ashton is raising questions about Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney’s trickery and conflicts of interest, the first of her party to do so.
Leftists party members and media alike have widely favoured the un-elected Carney as the frontrunner of Sunday’s leadership contest — the winner of which will become Canada’s next prime minister.
Ashton acknowledges Carney has been “touted as having the solutions to our economic challenges” — but says contrary to that well-constructed opinion, he is actually “very much the poster person for the broken system, the hollowing out of Canada that has made us so vulnerable today.”
The NDP MP exposed Brookfield Asset Management, a company Carney chaired until January 16 when he announced his candidacy for the Liberal leadership contest, for allegedly dodging corporate taxes using offshore accounts.
At the time of Carney's January 16 announcement, he said he resigned from his role as head of the company.
Ashton referenced a 2023 report from the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research called Brookfield: Canada's Top Tax Dodger.
“In 2021 Brookfield Asset Management dodged a jaw-dropping $6.5 billion,” said Ashton.
“In 2021 alone, Canada lost $30 billion in corporate tax revenue to offshore havens.”
“This means that one in five of all the tax dollars corporations diverted from the Canadian public came from Brookfield alone.”
“This is obscene, and Canadians are paying the price today.”
“We in the NDP are calling on Mark Carney to come clean about his role in Brookfield’s exploitative practices.”
“Did he help Brookfield dodge taxes? Canadians deserve to know.”
“With the tax dollars Brookfield hid in offshore accounts in Bermuda, could have invested in healthcare, affordable housing, and desperately needed infrastructure for First Nations.”
