Brookfield and Privatization in Latin America: Podcast with CICTAR Researcher Livi Gerbase

Livi Gerbase from the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR) joins Canadian podcaster extraordinaire ‘Millennial Moron’ to discuss ways that Brookfield and other Canadian pension fund managers are leveraging tax havens and tax-advantaged programs to privatize public utilities in Latin America.

Using CICTAR’s case studies of Isagen in Colombia and BRK Ambiental in Brazil they discuss the decline in capital investment into infrastructure, increases in prices to consumers, stagnant wages for workers, and the massive increase in debt charges to these former public utilities - which are potentially being used as a profit-shifting scheme to avoid paying taxes to the local governments where these utilities are located.

CICTAR highly recommends a full perusal of this illuminating youtube channel, described as ‘Canadian content for people who love to hate Canadian content’ and providing accessible, but detailed insight into themes linking closely with a lot of our work.