Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre says a Conservative government would create a new “tax task force” to crack down on the use of overseas tax havens, and direct the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to shift its focus away from Canadian charities and small businesses toward offshore accounts.
“You can’t avoid your taxes, global elites should not be able to either, and that is why I will end the Liberal two-tier tax system where elites get loopholes and working people get audited,” Poilievre said during an April 8 press conference in Edmonton.
Poilievre said his task force will propose solutions to close “loopholes” that allow tax havens to be a “source of evading taxes for the well-connected and the global elite.” He said the measures would allow the government to recover as much as $1 billion dollars a year in lost revenues.
At the same time, the CRA would be directed to audit fewer Canadian charities and small businesses and instead focus on “those who try to hide their wealth overseas.”
Poilievre would also create a public registry to “name and shame” major corporations attempting to dodge taxes. Poilievre’s government would also expand the CRA’s Offshore Tax Informant Program, giving whistleblowers up to 20 percent of recovered funds for helping expose illegal tax schemes.
The money saved from closing tax-haven loopholes would be used to pay for the Conservatives’ $14 billion income-tax cut, which would involve reducing the rate in the lowest tax bracket from 15 percent to 12.75 percent, Poilievre said on social media.
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Addressing offshore havens has also been a priority of the NDP, with leader Jagmeet Singh announcing on April 4 that his government would close “offshore tax loopholes” and use the recovered money to build infrastructure and strengthen Canada’s health-care system.
Singh said his government would end tax agreements with Bermuda while requiring corporations to prove a “genuine business reason” for having offshore accounts, and launch a review of Canada’s tax code to close the loopholes.
The Conservatives and NDP have criticized Liberal Leader Mark Carney for co-chairing two investment funds that were registered in the tax haven of Bermuda, where there is no capital gains tax, dividend tax, or withholding tax.
“How would Mark Carney ever be trusted to make our tax system fair when he’s invested in a company that has billions of dollars of cash stashed away in an overseas tax haven?” Poilievre said.
Brookfield Global Transition Fund and Brookfield Global Transition Fund II, valued at $15 billion and $10 billion respectively, were registered in Bermuda while Carney was on the board of directors for both.
In a February 2024 statement, Carney said the Brookfield Global Transition Fund strategy aimed to “deliver strong risk-adjusted financial returns for investors and make meaningful environmental impacts for people and the planet.”
Carney told reporters on March 26 that registering the funds in Bermuda benefitted Canadian pension funds, and that the taxes are ultimately paid in Canada because the “flow-through of the funds go to Canadian entities who then pay the taxes appropriately.”
“I understand how the world works and how these structures work, and have the ability to put in place all of the necessary rules to ensure that the appropriate taxes are paid here in Canada,” Carney added.
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