Conservatives call for Carney to sell Brookfield assets after questioning CEO

Conservatives are demanding that Prime Minister Mark Carney immediately sell off his assets in Brookfield Asset Management and disclose the nearly 2,000 other Brookfield companies he profits from.

Source: pe-insights.com

Conservatives are demanding that Prime Minister Mark Carney immediately sell off his assets in Brookfield Asset Management and disclose the nearly 2,000 other Brookfield companies he profits from that are exempt from ethics checks.

During a House of Commons ethics committee meeting, Brookfield CEO Justin Beber revealed that former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney benefits when a Brookfield company succeeds. However, 95 per cent of Brookfield’s portfolio companies are not publicly disclosed in Carney’s ethics disclosure and screenings.

Conservative MP Michael Cooper noted that Carney is only subject to ethics screening on 103 Brookfield companies, despite holding investments in the company, which Beber revealed has 2,000 companies in its portfolio. An ethics screen blocks Carney from being involved in decisions related to those files due to a conflict of interest.

Beber refused to commit to disclosing the other nearly 1,900 companies but said he would take the question to advisors before answering.

“When a Brookfield company makes money, Brookfield makes money, you said that and consistent with that, the success of any of these companies contributes to the value of Mr. Carney’s stock options,” Cooper said. “And so I would submit that it is of material interest. Canadians do deserve the right to know what these other 1900 companies are, 95% of which are not subject to the ethics screen.”

When asked to reveal which 20 companies are part of the holdings of the Brookfield Transition Fund, which were noted under Carney’s ethics disclosure statement, Beber suggested Conservatives should first ask the ethics commissioner, who would have seen what was in Carney’s file.

When questioned by Conservative MP Michael Barrett, Beber revealed that anyone holding stock options in Brookfield, such as Carney, benefits when Brookfield’s companies succeed. Conservatives noted that any Brookfield company, therefore, presents a conflict of interest, as the Prime Minister benefits from their success.

“In relation to the stock options and deferred share units, yes, as the value of Brookfield increases, the value of those instruments increases. There are also carried interest entitlements that relate more specifically to funds that we manage,” Beber told the committee.

Barrett questioned how having those holdings in a blind trust or a public screen could be “enough” to block Carney’s conflicts of interest. Beber said it would “depend” on whether those conflicts could be managed.

However, Beber later agreed with Barrett that there would be no need to manage Carney’s conflict of interest if a law required elected officials to sell their assets to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest.

“What we have isn’t a Brookfield problem. The reason that you’re here is that the Prime Minister has a financial interest in the performance of this company,” Barrett told Beber, “That’s why we’re here. We’re looking for information because it’s very opaque and Canadians don’t understand.”

Beber said Carney could sell, cash out, settle, or unwind all of his stock options with Brookfield if he wanted, or if parliament passed a law requiring members of parliament to do so when taking office.