The Conservatives held a press conference calling out Mark Carney for not disclosing all his possible financial conflicts before the election with Canadians.
Video Transcript:
(00:00) good morning we’re here again today because Mark Carney refuses to disclose his assets and his conflicts of interest he doesn’t understand why the media and why the opposition keep asking questions now every time he’s asked about his his connections to Brookfield asset management or his conflicts he becomes defensive he deflects and then he attacks remember what he told all of you and all Canadians after the Liberals English language leaders debate in Montreal he said quote I do not have a connection with Brookfield Asset
(00:39) Management end quote now I’m sure each and every one of you saw his exchange with reporters in London yesterday now did that sound to you like someone who didn’t have any connections to Brookfield and recall what his office said last week quote despite repeated attempts carne’s transition team have declined to clarify if the new prime minister still possesses any Financial interests in Brookfield end quote so apparently Mark Carney doesn’t think that Canadians deserve to know before they vote and apparently he thinks
(01:14) answering questions on this subject is beneath him when he was asked about moving his Brookfield headquarters to America from Canada he lied when he’s asked about his assets he says he doesn’t have any conflicts and he attacks the motives of the ones who are asking the questions but this really isn’t about his style of answering questions that are put to him by the media the question is why is he so defensive when he’s asked we know from media reports that Mark Carney was very likely owed future bonus payments from
(01:54) the multi-billion dollar Brookfield funds that he personally set up and that he managed and these bonus payments are directly tied to the performance of Investments that he made at Brookfield so what else do we know about the specific Brookfield funds set up by Carney now 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
(02:27) 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 is person Al and through their public filings we have some hints Mark Carney was appointed chair in the latter half of 2020 using the most recently
(03:09) available data for 2021 2023 we can see that brookfield’s reported Assets in the United States increased by 23% and in Canada declined by 4% that’s right just as Carney moved his headquarters to America while he was chair Brookfield was investing more in the United States and they were pulling back in Canada for years perhaps this is one of the reasons that Carney is so hostile when he’s asked questions we also know that Mark Carney handed over what he called a quote full and robust conflict of interest management plan end quote to
(03:51) the ethics commissioner last week and yesterday he bluntly denied having any conflicts of interest so how can some body claimed 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 them all why won’t Carney share his supposed conflict of interest plan with Canadians so that they can see for themselves Brookfield Investments touch on huge areas of public policy energy policy Environmental Policy industrial policy taxation policy an infrastructure
(04:30) policy now I could go on and on now is Carney planning on recusing himself from government discussions and decisions in those areas now some of you might recall Nigel Wright was hired as Steven Harper’s Chief of Staff 15 years ago because of Mr 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 now Mr Wright was a staffer carrying out the direction of elected officials Carney as prime minister well he’s the chief
(05:13) decider this so-called blind Trust of his it doesn’t protect him why because these aren’t stocks or 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 longterm contracts the only people blind to carne’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
(05:49) conflicts from Canadians avoiding answering questions now I’m not sure exactly how much attention Mark Carney has been paying to Canadian politics over the last decade but conflict of interest it’s a serious thing the Carney Trudeau liberals have been repeated violators of conflict of interest laws Justin Trudeau twice himself if Mark carne is going to go to Canadian voters and ask for a fourth liberal term he needs to be transparent and he could do that today we’re calling on Mark Carney to immediately disclose all of the assets
(06:27) that he put into his blind trust and releasing his quote full and robust conflict of interest management plan end quote if Kerney has nothing to hide he should have no problem doing so we know that he has them on file get it done today and with that I’ll take your questions what is your what is your party’s relationship with the provincial counterparty like what is the uh Federal conservatives relationship with Doug Ford’s Progressive conservatives is it a good relationship you know we have a working relationship with anyone who shares our
(07:03) priority to uh put Canada first the plan that’s been laid out by Mr PV um with respect to provincial jurisdiction breaking down interprovincial trade barriers any of the Premier who are prepared to work collaboratively with us on that um we’ll find a great partner in in conservatives the same is true with uh Mayors for for cities who are prepared to get rid of uh the red tape and bureaucracy that’s driving up uh develop vment charges driving up the prices of homes so we’re ready to work in in good faith with Partners across
(07:35) Canada who are ready after nine years of these uh carne trudo liberals to to put Canadians first conflict of interest what are specifically the conflict of interest that you were worried about and how would that impact Canadians so things like the carried interest funds that will’ll see payments made to Mr Carney based on the performance of these funds are something that should concern all Canadians Mr Carney built These funds he was the one who went out and and solicited the Investments for it and so these aren’t something that wants in
(08:06) a blind trust though the trust is being managed by someone else who is managing it we don’t know but though it’s being managed by by someone else they can’t simply just uh sell these assets as they would in in a regular stock portfolio these are locked in with long-term contracts so Canadians need to know what is the the benefit that that Mr Carney stands to to to gain from funds uh like like those which one are you concerned about well we’ve we’ve listed the the three funds that Mr Carney has these Global transition funds one and two the
(08:42) catalytic fund these are ones built by Mr Carney and he knows what’s in them and all of these funds uh touch on areas that are regulated federally or will be impacted by decisions that he can take so the question is is Mr Carney going to recuse himself is he going to absent himself from discussions and decisions anytime these issues are are raised uh and and what’s more is he is he prepared to properly divest them because simply placing them into a uh into a blind trust as some people have pointed out as more of a venetian blind because uh
(09:18) because he’s able to see in there’s a process underway with the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner’s office and it’s their responsibility at this point as I understand it to take the information that Mr Carney has given them and then to provide him with advice does he need to recuse himself what does he need to disclose to Canadians what does he need to divest do you have faith in that office and its ability to do its job so the problem that we have right now is that while that advice is uh is um being
(09:44) developed is we have um we have Mr Carney who’s taking International meetings setting a national policy and making decisions um signing orders as uh as with his black Sharpie as as we saw the other day and what is the impact on his personal wealth his personal Investments as a result of that are we simply to be satisfied as Canadians that someone can be the prime minister of this country um and be the the uh only uh public official the only public office holder in Canada who doesn’t have that public disclosure not only is Mr Carney the
(10:20) Prime Minister he is currently the least transparent public office holder in Canada simply saying that well there’s a 60-day timeline he had the opport opportunity at the outset of the uh of the process when he was seeking to become the leader of the liberal party where he could have disclosed this information to Canadians why is it that he must wait for the the maximum amount of time that’s statutorily allowed to him why won’t he simply be transparent with Canadians and provide them with the confidence that their prime minister is
(10:52) acting in the best interest of Canada and not his own best interest and what’s the evidence that Mr Carney will put his own profets ahead of Canadians well just take a look at his decision when he had the opportunity to send a message as the chair of Brookfield Asset Management to keep its headquarters in Canada to keep it proudly Canadian and what did he do as he noted in his letter to shareholders in the interest of higher profits for himself for his board and for their shareholders he moved it to Donald Trump’s Hometown in New York City
(11:26) and he sent that letter urging all of the shareholders to ratify the unanimous decision of his Board of which he was chair in order to ensure their profits when did that letter get sent within a week within a week of Donald Trump saying that he was going to attack Canada with unjust and unjustified tariffs were you surprised to see his snipp yesterday you know I the the uh way in which Mr Carney answers the questions uh as objectionable as as it might be isn’t the isn’t the Paramount issue it’s the fact that he’s refusing it it’s he’s
(12:04) distracting from the real problem here and that’s the lack of transparency TR the lack of transpar transparency from someone who when pressed by media and one of his few few times that he’s taken questions uh from the media since he uh entered elected politics or or running for public office and he lied he lied about his role at Brookfield and so not only only can we not simply take him at his word we now need to question what his motives are and you know and and if you look at what he said uh on on Friday here in this building when he said that
(12:42) uh they were going to eliminate the carbon tax and then yesterday he says that’s what he says here in Canada and then yesterday he’s he’s in Europe and he says uh we need to have a carbon tax in place in order to to trade with other countries which is which is simply not simply which is simp which is simply not which is is simply not true okay speaking he had 60 days to disclose the information to the ethics commissioner which he’s done so I’m wondering like speaking rules wise is it the rules that you want to change since he’s officially
(13:11) abided by them yes so we’ve said that the rules absolutely need to change we couldn’t have imagined a scenario when conservatives put in place this conflict of interest regime following what was then the uh most corrupt government that Canada had seen with the cretan Martin liberals well we’ve now emerged from n years of the Carney Trudeau liberals and we see a series of uh ethical law breaking and Scandals that have have really tested and challenged the laws as they exist so yes the laws need to be updated but what but well of course that
(13:43) this is something that that reporting timeline would need to change it would be required for uh leaders who are running uh people who are running for the leadership of these parties but it begs the question why do we have to appeal to the lowest common denominator why is that Mark Carney isn’t simply willing to just be transparent with Canadians he knows today what those conflicts are he knows what is in that robust plan why not simply take the information that is going to be disclosed like it is for all public
(14:14) office holders you can take a look at any public office holder in the you can can take uh a couple of things first of all I can tell you before I file my disclosure based on reading the rules exactly what’s going to appear in the public registry so it’s it’s black and white it’s not a discretionary matter there’s there’s things that will be publicly disclosed and things that won’t be there’s also things that are that are uh conflicts of interest that will present and uh whether or not you need to recuse yourself from from those
(14:49) decisions might be a Precision that you need to discuss with the ethics commissioner but look this is the prime minister of Canada how is it that he’s expected to lead discussion to take decisions to to chair the the cabinet in this country and he’s got to leave the room when anything on taxation anything on Transportation anything on energy on Green Technology is discussed in the room because that’s what’s invested in these funds that he’s going to be effectively taking a commission on getting getting payments on when based
(15:19) on the F the performance of those funds so why doesn’t he simply just tell Canadians what he stands to gain from those funds it’s it’s basic transparency so every other public official can tell you what appears in their uh what appears in in their disclosure and you can go you can look online but we also know through a very basic reading of the rules um what is going to be publicly disclosed disclose that but also what his plan is so do we have why is it that we have to wait uh the 60 days to read it because what’s going to happen in
(15:50) that time there’s going to be an election and in the meantime Mr Carney continues to take decisions he continues to set policy for this country and even Pro ing into the future after the election it’s basic transparency it’s incumbent on a prime minister and he should he should do that especially when he’s leading a party that includes a cabinet who have members who have been found guilty of breaking the very law that he claims to hold so important that he’s going to appeal only and meet only the minimum standard Canadians expect
(16:19) more than the minimum standard from a prime minister Mr Carney should do better
