NDP leader Jagmeet Singh on Friday said his government would end tax agreements with “havens like Bermuda” as the Liberal leader scrambles to cover his offshore banking.
Brookfield Asset Management, the holding corporation Mark Carney chaired up until his January 16 Liberal leadership announcement, funneled its revenues through Bermuda, as the Western Standard earlier reported.
Singh, whose party propped up the Liberal government in a years-long coalition, now plans to “stop billionaires and big corporations like Mark Carney’s Brookfield from dodging taxes through offshore havens.”
The NDP did its math — and found the $5.3 billion in Brookfield assets sheltered in offshore tax havens could have paid for 53,000 nurses, 17,600 doctors, 1,250 new streetcars, 5,300 electric buses, or 14,500 units of affordable housing.
According to a statement from the party, “Canada loses up to $39 billion to offshore tax avoidance.”
Therefore, the NDP proposes to “end tax agreements with known havens like Bermuda, require corporations to prove a genuine business reason for offshore accounts, implement public country-by-country financial reporting to prevent multinational corporations from hiding profits, and launch a review of the tax code to close loopholes that allow big corporations to avoid paying what they owe.”
“While billionaires hide their wealth and Conservative and Liberal governments look the other way, everyday Canadians are left paying the price,” Singh said.
“The only way to stop the giveaways and service cuts is to elect New Democrats — so we can shut down tax havens and make sure that money goes where it’s needed most: fixing health care, tackling the doctor shortage, and rebuilding the public services families count on — not sitting in offshore accounts while people wait hours in the ER.”
Singh was asked about his big display last summer when he dramatically ripped up the NDP-Liberal coalition agreement on national television — only to vote against his own words in multiple non-confidence votes launched by the Conservatives.
Singh refused to answer the reporter’s question, and instead encouraged people to vote for his party and claimed “people are starting to reject the Conservatives.”
“For years, the ultra-rich have exploited offshore tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share — leaving working families to cover the shortfall,” Singh said at a press conference.
“New Democrats will close these loopholes and use the billions of dollars recovered to build infrastructure, strengthen health care, and lower everyday costs for Canadians.”
Singh said under Carney’s leadership, Brookfield avoided $5.3 billion in taxes between 2021 and 2024, and pointed to a report that showed “most of Brookfield’s core businesses were registered in Bermuda at an oceanfront address with a bike shop.”
“Mark Carney helped run one of Canada’s top tax dodgers, but he's not the only one benefiting,” Singh said.
He claimed Liberals and Conservatives “created these loopholes” and are now “racing to hand out even bigger tax breaks to billionaires and powerful corporations while promising to cut services like health care.”
