Liberals Adjourn Debate on Conservatives' Call for Probe of Vancouver Condo Bailout and Brookfield Connection

New government majority ends debate without allowing a vote on MP Aaron Gunn's motion for six summer hearings — with Bob Rennie, Gregor Robertson, and Brookfield Asset Management as witnesses.

OTTAWA — In a contentious ethics committee, Conservative MP Aaron Gunn moved Tuesday to summon Vancouver condo marketer Bob Rennie, federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson, and major developers connected to Rennie’s fundraiser for Mark Carney as witnesses in an urgent parliamentary investigation of the Prime Minister’s multibillion-dollar British Columbia condo bailout — before the Liberal majority ended debate on the motion in a five-to-four vote, shelving the probe without allowing it to be decided.

A second Conservative, Gabriel Hardy, walked the committee through a timeline that ended on the most pointed suggestion of the hearing. Hardy asserted that Brookfield — the asset-management giant Carney chaired before entering politics — became co-owner in a deal with Concert Properties, a developer holding dozens of condo projects in the Burnaby glut zone, fifteen days before the bailout was announced.