Recent developments have thrust former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney into an intense spotlight, with Conservative critics accusing him of misleading Canadians about his involvement in relocating Brookfield Asset Management from Toronto to New York.
According to critics, Carney’s public account of when Brookfield decided to move its headquarters conflicts with evidence suggesting that the decision was made — and announced — before he relinquished his role on the firm’s board.
The timing of Carney’s departure has become a focal point. While he insists that the “formal decision of the board” was taken only after he stepped down last month to launch his bid for the Liberal Party leadership, the company itself had already announced its intention to relocate in late 2024. Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman underscored the discrepancy by noting that the Financial Post reported Brookfield’s relocation on November 1, long before Carney publicly cut ties with the firm.
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“Mark Carney blatantly lied to Canadians last night,” Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre wrote on X. “He claimed he had nothing to do with moving his company headquarters to Trump’s America, even though he chaired the meeting where the decision was made and wrote company shareholders endorsing the move.”
A December 1 letter to Brookfield shareholders revealed Carney advocating for the move, explaining that “the most common feedback we hear from investors encourages us to position (Brookfield Asset Management) for inclusion in some of the most widely followed global large cap stock indices, including in the US”.
The letter urged shareholders to vote in favor of relocating the company’s head office to New York. By the time Brookfield held a special shareholder meeting on January 27 of this year, the measure passed with broad support.
Carney’s campaign team has dismissed the Conservative accusations as a deliberate attempt to distort the facts, describing the Brookfield headquarters move as largely “technical in nature” and emphasizing that “Canadian operations were not impacted.”
In an email statement to the National Post, Carney’s campaign argued that Poilievre “is scared of running against Mark Carney, and he’s desperate to misrepresent Mark’s serious experience in business because he has no economic experience whatsoever.”
In a chance interview, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson commented on the issue, saying that company boards “have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders.”
“I know Mr. Carney as a man of very high ethics,” he said in the interview. “At the end of the day, his job, as a chairman of a board, is to act in the best interest of shareholders. I’m sure he did that.”
Carney himself has pointed out that he severed all board and advisory positions, including those with Brookfield, Bloomberg, and payment platform Stripe, prior to launching his Liberal leadership campaign on January 16. However, he has brushed aside calls to proactively disclose any remaining corporate holdings or potential conflicts of interest, saying he will address such matters if and when he takes a seat in Parliament.
Information for this briefing was found via National Post and the sources mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
