Brookfield executive grilled by MPs on Carney's performance pay, firm's tax record

OTTAWA — Brookfield chief operating officer Justin Beber appeared at the House of Commons ethics committee on Monday, but unlike the Canadian singer with a nearly identical name, his presence did not create waves of excitement.

For two hours, Beber was repeatedly grilled by opposition MPs about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s potential for conflicts of interest with Brookfield, Carney’s returns of the global investment funds he helped set up at Brookfield, but also Brookfield’s tax practices.

“Mr. Beber, you’ve been, I think, a very patient participant in this late-season fishing expedition,” said Liberal MP Leslie Church about the opposition’s attempts to steer the executive away from his carefully crafted statements to the ethics committee.

Beber started off his remarks by explaining that Carney cut ties with Brookfield on Jan. 16, 2025, the same day on which he announced his candidacy to become Liberal leader.

“Since then, at no point has anyone at Brookfield spoken with the prime minister about Brookfield business,” he said.

However, when asked by Conservative MP Michael Barrett when he had communicated with Carney, Beber admitted he had met him “only once” to discuss the rise of antisemitism in early October. The meeting took place in Carney’s office, he said.

Beber said he worked with Carney over five years at Brookfield and said he was an “exceptionally talented executive and person of great integrity.”

Most of the Conservatives’ line of questioning was about the funds that Carney is entitled to, as former head of transition investing for Brookfield Asset Management.

In this role, Carney co-led efforts to raise capital for two major clean energy funds, Global Transition Fund (“BGTF I”) and the Second Global Transition Fund (“BGTF II”).

He was also in the process of raising money for a new fund, the Catalytic Transition Fund (“CTF”), when he left Brookfield.

As previously reported by the National Post , Carney acquired Brookfield share options and deferred shared units, but also potentially tens of millions in undisclosed “carried interest” — essentially, bonus payments based on a fund’s performance when it reaches maturity.

Beber said Carney is entitled to carried interest payments for BGTF I — which, Beber explained, is set to reach maturity in either 2032 or 2034 — but not for the two other transition funds Carney helped create at Brookfield Asset Management.

“The reason for that is we were in the process of setting up those funds when Mr. Carney decided to leave Brookfield to pursue the Liberal leadership,” Beber said.

Pressed by Conservative MP Michael Cooper if he was disputing that Carney stands to make millions, if not tens of millions of dollars from those investments, Beber said it was “certainly not a fact.”

Carney put all of his assets, except some money and his personal real estate, into a blind trust when he became Liberal leader. He has also disclosed all his potential conflicts to the ethics commissioner, who crafted an extensive ethics screen for over 100 entities.

But, in the context of the review of the Conflict of Interest Act which the ethics committee is undertaking, the Conservatives are pushing for the law to go even further and require lawmakers such as Carney to sell their assets to prevent any potential conflicts.

Current and former senior bureaucrats have advised against going that far to not discourage competent leaders from the private sector from entering politics.

But Conservatives say that Carney’s situation is unique, as former executive of a company which has financial interests in a wide range of sectors — such as modular housing, clean energy and artificial intelligence — that the government is taking an active interest in.

They pressed Beber to know whether Carney’s latest budget would help Brookfield increase its revenues, with the executive responding that his firm has 2,000 businesses under its wing and will assess and react to government policy in their best interest.

“What we have isn’t a Brookfield problem. The reason that you’re here is because the prime minister has a financial interest in the performance of this company,” said Barrett.

Bloc Québécois MP Luc Thériault attempted to grill Beber on allegations of tax avoidance involving Brookfield , but Beber insisted that his company complies with all tax laws. He even declined to say if tax avoidance exists, saying he can only speak to Brookfield.

The transition funds Carney co-managed were both registered in Bermuda , one of the largest tax havens in the world.

Thériault appeared visibly frustrated by Beber’s lack of answers.

“After tax avoidance, we have question avoidance,” he said in French.

Beber also declined to comment on any changes that should be made to the Conflict of Interest Act. “It’s very, very hard for me to opine on matters that involve legislation and government apparatus that I’m not very familiar with,” he said.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said that Baber confirmed on Monday what Canadians already knew, which is that Carney owns Brookfield stock options and carried interest payments that will not come to maturity for many years still.

Conacher said Carney’s situation is “an ongoing, direct and significant financial conflict of interest” because he would eventually profit from any decision he makes or participates in that could help any of Brookfield’s many businesses make more money.

“The only way to ensure integrity in the federal government’s policy-making processes is for him to sell these investments.”

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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