Michael Cooper

Mr. Speaker, Greeting · 39 wordsI rise to follow up on a question I posed regarding the ethical cloud surrounding the Prime Minister in respect of decisions that his government has made to the benefit of Brookfield and, by extension, his personal financial portfolio.Greeting Claims · 72 wordsIt is an undisputed fact that the Prime Minister has vast conflicts of interest with respect to Brookfield.Unearned certainty Indeed, he has acknowledged more than 100 such conflicts of interest.¹ Notwithstanding this, he has dismissed concerns about these conflicts on the basis that his assets are in a blind trust.² The problem with that, of course, is that his blind trust is not truly blind because he knows exactly what went into it. Procedure · 8 wordsLet us look at some of the facts.Procedure Claims · 47 wordsThe Prime Minister stands to make tens of millions of dollars in future bonus pay from a Brookfield investment fund that he set up when he was the chair of Brookfield.³ Accordingly, he knows exactly what companies the fund has invested in because he hand-picked the companies. Positioning · 6 wordsWhat exactly is blind about that?Positioning Claims · 16 wordsThen there are the Brookfield stock options for which the Prime Minister stands to make millions. Positioning · 20 wordsWhat is blind about that? All of this to say that there is nothing blind about his so-called blind trust.Positioning Claims · 25 wordsSince the Prime Minister took office, time and again we have seen Brookfield at the front of the line, doing very well under the government. Procedure · 5 wordsI will provide some examples.Procedure Claims · 91 wordsThe government funnelled half a billion dollars to the European Space Agency.⁴ Why the European Space Agency? Could it be because Brookfield has a 50% ownership in the space agency’s headquarters?⁵ Could that be the reason or part of the reason? Then, there is the Pathways Alliance carbon capture scheme, involving billions of dollars of investment in carbon capture.⁶ The leading carbon capture company connected to Pathways Alliance is Entropy. Who owns Entropy? None other than the same Brookfield investment fund the Prime Minister’s future bonus pay is directly tied to.⁷ Aside · 3 wordsWhat a coincidence.Aside Claims · 18 wordsThen there is the $50-billion maple fund that ties the retirement savings of millions of Canadians to Brookfield, ⁸Aside · 4 wordsand on it goes.Aside Claims · 87 wordsBillions of dollars are flowing to Brookfield as a result of decisions made by the government.⁹ When Brookfield does well, the Prime Minister does well. That is verified by none other than the chief operating officer of Brookfield.¹⁰ What we have amounts to one big conflict of interest involving the Prime Minister. In the face of that, the ethics committee issued a report in the spring calling on the Prime Minister to end these conflicts of interest by divesting himself fully from Brookfield.¹¹ Why has he not?