Several entities of global investment giant Brookfield Asset Management’s core business are registered to an address in Bermuda that also houses a local bike shop, CTV News has learned.
Liberal Leader Mark Carney previously served as chair of Brookfield’s board, from August of 2022 until mid-January of this year, when he resigned to run for the party leadership.
Last week, Radio Canada reported that two Brookfield pension funds, worth a combined $25 billion, were registered in Bermuda.
One of the significant advantages of registering business in Bermuda is the country’s tax regime; until this year the country did not have a corporate income tax. Comparatively, the federal corporate income tax rate in Canada is 15 per cent.
Carney’s rivals, including NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, have accused him of leading a company that doesn’t pay its fare share in Canadian taxes.
“That’s less money for health care. Less money for seniors. That’s less investments in our country,” Singh said last week.
The company’s annual report for the fiscal year ending December 2024 outlines five core areas of its businesses — renewable power and transition, infrastructure, private equity, real estate and credit — along with their corresponding LPs (limited partnerships).
Four of those LPs are registered to an office in a building on Front Street, a busy, waterfront promenade in Bermuda’s capital that is lined with colourful, colonial-era buildings.
Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P., Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P., Brookfield Property Partners L.P., and Brookfield Business Partners L.P. all list their business address as 73 Front Street, Hamilton, 5th Floor, Bermuda.
On the first floor of that pastel-pink building, there is a local cycling shop.
The image was captured by Google Street View in 2015, but an employee at the bike shop confirmed to CTV News that the photo is still accurate, and the shop is still housed at that address.
Other angles of 73 Front Street reviewed by CTV News show the building has a fourth and fifth floor set further back from the street front.
The U.K.-based tax fairness advocacy group Tax Justice Network ranks Bermuda as one of the world’s top corporate tax havens, behind only the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
According to Brookfield Asset Management’s annual report, the publicly traded Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P., Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P., and Brookfield Business Partners L.P. boast a combined market capitalization of nearly $50 billion.
Carney faced questions over the pension funds’ registry in Bermuda last week. He defended the practice, saying the flow through of pensions to beneficiaries of the pension funds ultimately means the pensioners pay taxes on their pensions.
“I know the way the world works,” he told reporters last Wednesday. “I have the ability to put in place all of the necessary rules to ensure that the appropriate taxes are paid here in Canada.”
CTV News asked the Liberal campaign whether Carney thinks it is ethical for a company like Brookfield Asset Management to register their business entities in so-called tax havens and what rules he would put in place to ensure taxes are paid in Canada.
The campaign’s spokesperson sent a statement in response that did not address the substance of either question.
“Poilievre continually attacks Mark Carney’s expertise in business and finance because he has no expertise of his own,” Mohammad Hussain wrote.
“Mr. Carney worked for Brookfield from August 2020-January 2025 and no longer has any involvement in the firm. Specific questions about Brookfield should be sent to the firm directly.”
The Liberals promised during the 2021 federal election campaign to significantly increase the resources of the Canada Revenue Agency to combat aggressive tax planning and tax avoidance.
The non-profit Canadians for Tax Fairness wrote in February of this year that the promise “resulted in actions that play around the edges of the issue without addressing the root causes.”
“The government did modestly increase funding for the Canada Revenue Agency to go after wealthy tax cheats, improve Canada’s general anti-tax avoidance rule, and implement the Global Minimum Tax Act, however, nothing was done to address the biggest channel for tax evasion and avoidance: the bilateral tax treaties that Canada has with tax haven,” wrote Silas Xuereb, a researcher and policy analyst at Canadians for Tax Fairness.
Xuereb noted that five of the seven countries with the most Canadian direct investment were “known tax havens,” including Bermuda.
With files from Hannah Berge
