David Staples: Was Mark Carney’s jet fuel deal simply a political grift?

Mark Carney boasted his billion-dollar jet fuel deal was a “fantastic opportunity” for his business, the investment firm Brookfield. But Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre now calls that same deal an example of “crony capitalism. ”

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Poilievre accuses his political opponent of being a “political grifter” using political influence to make himself and his investor friends rich while driving up costs for the poorest Canadians.

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The deal had two parts. First in his capacity of an adviser to the U.K. government, Carney has helped push for a new British regulation to use 10 per cent biofuel in jet planes. Second, Carney’s company Brookfield made a $1-billion investment in a biofuel company.

“Mr. Carney is not a businessman,” Poilievre said in Edmonton on Tuesday. “He is a political grifter who has used his political influence to turn decisions that profit his company at the expense of workers and seniors — and that is exactly how he would govern the country.”

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Carney brought up the jet fuel deal at the Prime Quadrant conference — billed as a place to reach 400 “ultra high net worth investors” — in December 2024. At the time, Carney was both an official economic adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and also chairman and head of impact investing for Brookfield.

Carney used the jet fuel deal as an example of how government policy can drive investment into net-zero businesses.

He told his interviewer that he gave free advice to politicians. “I do spend some time advising on what, you know, again, pro bono, but advising on the types of policies that are going to have maximum impacts for investors.”

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He then pointed to air travel causing two per cent of global carbon emissions. “So the question is, ‘Are we going to have green, sustainable aviation fuel?’ What’s happened in the U.K., the EU, is they’ve said to major airlines, ‘Look, if you’re flying in and out of Heathrow or wherever, you have to have 10 per cent of your load, it has to be sustainable aviation fuel by 2030.’”

As a consequence of this policy, Carney said the biofuel produced by a Texas company suddenly became economic. Airline companies like American Airlines and British Airways had to purchase this more expensive fuel. “They’ll pay a green premium,” Carney said. “In that case, we put, Brookfield, put a billion dollars to work there (investing in the biofuel company). And, you know, it’s a fantastic opportunity. The point being, the policy has to drive it and drive things down.”

I asked Poilievre about this jet fuel deal. He was in Edmonton for a political rally, then took questions from the media at a Tire Town outlet, standing before a group of shop workers.

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“It’s crony capitalism,” Poilievre said, “It works against these people behind me.”

He gestured at Tire Town workers, then unpacked what Carney had said and done. “In this particular case he used his political power to convince the British government to require more expensive jet fuel for air travel, and then he invested, his company invested, a billion dollars in the company that was selling that jet fuel. So, if God forbid, a family like the people behind me here want to take their kids on a vacation somewhere, they have to pay higher airplane ticket prices to fund this more expensive jet fuel so that Mark Carney’s billion-dollar investment can pay off.”

Poilievre concluded his critique. “Mark Carney has been getting rich by making the working class poor.”

Of course business leaders often lobby government leaders. But Carney’s relationship was more than lobbying, it was working closely with government on policy, sometimes as a formal adviser.

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Of course Carney will say the carbon policies he pushed and/or is now still pushing — from consumer carbon taxes to biofuel mandates, from carbon emissions caps on the oil and gas industry to carbon tariffs on imported products — are hugely beneficial when it comes to dealing with global warming.

That may or may not be true. I have major doubts given how hesitant progressive left elites have been to embrace the best way to lower emissions, namely building out nuclear power and replacing coal burning with lower emissions LNG exports.

It’s also fair to ask at a time when the world’s economic tigers, from the U.S. to China to India, are producing and securing as much fossil fuel energy as they can, and when numerous top Western financial institutions are backing away from Carney’s net-zero regulatory scheme, if it’s wise for Canada to now go all-in on iffy policies that have done well for Carney and Brookfield but have driven up costs for struggling Canadian families.

dstaples@postmedia.com

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