Liberal Party leadership candidate Mark Carney after the Feb. 25 English language party leadership debate.Evan Buhler/Reuters
Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney says he was no longer the chair of a major investment company when the formal decision was made to move its headquarters to the United States, but company records show the relocation was completed during his tenure.
The conflict between the timeline he laid out and what Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM-T disclosures show prompted the federal Conservatives to accuse him of misleading Canadians, and garnered criticism from his leadership rivals.
Mr. Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor, is framing his leadership bid around a promise to focus on growing the Canadian economy and creating jobs. He was asked after the Liberal leadership debate on Tuesday night how that goal jibes with Brookfield’s decision that the U.S. was a better home. Brookfield is one of the world’s largest asset managers, overseeing more than US$1-trillion.
Mr. Carney said Tuesday night that “the formal decision of the board happened after I ceased to be on the board.”
Mr. Carney joined the company’s board in 2020 and became chair in 2022. He stepped down in mid-January when he launched his bid for the Liberal leadership.
The Globe and Mail first reported in September that the company was thinking about moving its headquarters to the U.S., a technical change so it could have better access to U.S. stock indices.
“As part of this effort, BAM has now changed its head office to New York,” the company then confirmed in an Oct. 31 press release, as well as a Nov. 4 letter to shareholders, that also laid out plans to pursue a new share arrangement.
The Globe repeatedly asked Mr. Carney’s campaign Wednesday for clarification of his comments considering the public statements from the company about the relocation had been made well before he stepped down.
His campaign pointed to a Feb. 4 press release from Brookfield Asset Management noting the conclusion of the new share arrangement, and pointed out Mr. Carney was no longer on the board by then.
According to Brookfield’s disclosures, the company had already moved its headquarters by that point, without needing shareholders’ approval.
The new share arrangement made all of the asset manager’s shares publicly traded, but did not change the balance of ownership. The company’s corporate parent, Brookfield Corp. BN-T still owns 73 per cent of Brookfield Asset Management and is based in Toronto.
In the statement to The Globe, the Carney campaign said the headquarters move was technical in nature and Canadian operations weren’t affected.
“Pierre 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,” the campaign said.
The Conservatives said Mr. Carney can’t be trusted and accused him of putting profits ahead of jobs for Canadians.
“He lied to Canadians,” Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett said during a news conference Wednesday morning, accusing Mr. Carney of shepherding the move at the behest of Donald Trump, who was then campaigning for election as president and asking businesses to come to the U.S.
“It’s crystal clear If Mark Carney wins, Canada loses.”
In the Nov. 4 letter to shareholders, when Mr. Carney was still chair of Brookfield Asset Management’s board, the company’s top executives said the company had “changed our head office to New York – already our largest office.”
“We have been operating as a U.S. company for twenty years,” CEO Bruce Flatt and president Connor Teskey wrote in the letter. “Our largest share of revenues, assets under management, and employees are based in the U.S., as well as the majority of our institutional shareholders are U.S. investors and the majority of our shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.”
Brookfield holds investments in real estate, infrastructure, private equity, credit and renewable energy. For decades, it’s been a global investor with a base in Canada, but half or more of its assets are in the United States.
Moving the head office of Brookfield Asset Management to New York is one of several changes the company made in recent years to try and boost the value of its stock by reaching a broader pool of investors.
In his response Tuesday night, Mr. Carney held Brookfield up as the kind of company that shows what Canadians can build.
“We need more of that building here in Canada, but we need government policy and clear direction in order to do that. And that’s the direction that I can bring to build Canada for the future,” he said.
Liberal leadership candidate Karina Gould was asked Wednesday whether she thought Mr. Carney’s role in the move should reflect negatively on his campaign promise of wanting to protect the Canadian economy.
“It’s up to him to defend his decision,” she told reporters, speaking in French. “I will always defend Canadian jobs.”
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland’s leadership campaign team posted a screenshot to social media of a news story noting a time that Ms. Freeland worked to bring a multinational company back to Canada.
“Chrystia’s been fighting for Canadian jobs well before her time in politics. And as Liberal Leader and Prime Minister, she’ll keep fighting,” the post said.