"According to staff e-mails seen by The Globe, the union’s top official, executive secretary-treasurer Jason Rowe, and his wife, Stacey Rowe, who is also a senior union official, have left their posts. Tom Cardinal, the union’s president and chief of staff, also resigned"
IS THE $4 MILLION HOUSE SCAM JUST THE TIP OF THE ICE BERG.MAYBE NOT BUT
THIS HAS TO BE THE FASTEST DIRTY DOUG TAKE DOWN OF A STOOGE ON RECORD
"Jason Rowe, Stacey Rowe and Tom Cardinal out after media reports of multimillion-dollar homes bought by union"
“Please be advised that, effective yesterday, Jason Rowe, Tom Cardinal, and Stacey Rowe resigned from their positions with the Carpenters' Regional Council,” reads Sivertson’s brief email, sent on Friday.
CONSTRUCTION UNION BOSS QUITS AMID PROBE OVER $4 -MILLION HOME
JEFF GRAY
The head of the Carpenters’ Regional Council, one of Canada’s largest construction unions, has resigned amid an internal probe prompted by a Globe and Mail investigation that revealed the organization had bought a $4-million house that he and his wife lived in for two years.
According to staff e-mails seen by The Globe, the union’s top official, executive secretary-treasurer Jason Rowe, and his wife, Stacey Rowe, who is also a senior union official, have left their posts. Tom Cardinal, the union’s president and chief of staff, also resigned.
A spokesman for the CRC, which is headquartered in Vaughan, Ont., north of Toronto, did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Rowe did not respond to messages asking for comment and Ms. Rowe and Mr. Cardinal could not be reached.
The CRC, which says it has 60,000 members in 30 locals across Ontario and Western Canada, oversees hundreds of millions in pension funds and has received millions from the federal and Ontario governments for skills-training programs.
Earlier this month, The Globe reported that the CRC was placed under the supervision of its U.S.-based parent union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, which launched an internal probe.
The move followed a Globe investigation, published in April, that revealed the union’s purchase of the house, which Mr. Rowe and his wife lived in from 2022 to 2024.
The staff e-mails obtained by The Globe say this investigation has not been completed.
The 2022 purchase of the $4-million home in Nobleton, Ont., not far from the union’s Vaughan headquarters, wasn’t the only real estate transaction that has raised questions.
The Globe has also found that the union bought a second house in the same area in 2024, for $2.5-million. The CRC did not respond to questions about why the second house was purchased or whether any senior union officials had lived in it.
Property records show that the same numbered company that purchased the first home also purchased the second. Mr. Rowe and his wife were both listed as directors of the numbered company at the time, and Mr. Rowe was listed as acting for the company on both transactions.
The two properties were transferred for $0 to the Carpenters’ Regional Council Building Corp. that year. The union has said it owns both that corporation and the numbered company but has not explained the reason behind the transfers or the use of the numbered company.
The second property is now listed for sale. According to the real estate listing, it has four bedrooms, five bathrooms and a family room with a 20-foot ceiling.
Earlier this month, the U.S. parent union’s general president, Douglas McCarron, sent a letter to union leaders, obtained by The Globe, saying that his organization would investigate the newspaper’s revelations about the Ontario-based branch’s purchase of the $4-million home.
Mr. McCarron did not respond to a request for comment.
The union has acknowledged that Mr. Rowe and his wife lived in the property from 2022 to 2024. It was later rented out.
The Globe reported that the union’s executive board was not told about the first house and its intended purpose and did not vote on the purchase, citing a source familiar with the union’s decision-making. The Globe did not name the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the union’s internal matters.
After first telling The Globe that the $4-million home “was not purchased for the use of any one person,” the CRC later said the house was needed, on a short-term basis, for Mr. Rowe, who lived in Manitoba before being brought in to lead a restructuring of the organization.
The CRC said the decision to purchase the first house “was disclosed to members of our executive board” and “approved through our established governance processes, including oversight under the organization’s bylaws.”
But the union did not directly answer questions on whether the executive board had voted on the purchase or provide details of what it says was disclosed.
At the time of the purchase of this first house, the CRC was also under a form of supervision known as a trusteeship, imposed by its U.S. parent. This allowed for Mr. Rowe to be installed as executive secretary-treasurer and left control of the CRC with him and a handful of appointed trustees.
Neither the CRC nor its U.S. parent have answered questions about this previous trusteeship. According to a disclosure document filed with the U.S. Department of Labor in April, 2022, it was imposed to “correct corruption or financial malpractice.” But the document provides no details of any allegations or what was done to address them at the time.
Under Mr. Rowe’s leadership, the CRC endorsed Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives for the first time, just before the 2025 election – after the union had received $27-million from the province’s Skills Development Fund.
In pictures posted on the Premier’s Facebook page from a February, 2025, campaign event marking the endorsement, Mr. Ford can be seen shaking Mr. Rowe’s hand and applauding as he speaks to union members.
The CRC also endorsed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals before the federal election that year.
CARPENTERS UNION OFFICIALS RESIGN AS PROBE CONTINUES
Three officials at a major Ontario construction union, including its top leader, are out as an internal investigation into the union’s finances continues.
Jason Rowe, Stacey Rowe and Tom Cardinal resigned from the Carpenters’ Regional Council (CRC) on Thursday, according to an email sent on behalf of Dan Sivertson, international business representative at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBCJA), the CRC’s U.S. parent union.
Jason Rowe was the CRC’s top leader as its executive-secretary treasurer, as well as the U.S. union’s Canadian district vice-president. His wife, Stacey Rowe, has also served as a CRC official.
Cardinal was the CRC’s chief of staff, another top official.
An investigation into the Carpenters’ Regional Council by its American parent was launched after The Globe and Mail reported that the CRC had purchased a $4-million home north of Toronto, in which Rowe and his wife lived.
On Friday, The Trillium reported that the CRC purchased a second, $2.5-million home in the same area. It is unclear how that house was used.
The union has rented out the $4-million home and has been trying to sell the $2.5-million home since February.
“Please be advised that, effective yesterday, Jason Rowe, Tom Cardinal, and Stacey Rowe resigned from their positions with the Carpenters' Regional Council,” reads Sivertson’s brief email, sent on Friday.
“The International continues their open investigation,” the email reads, referring to the UBCJA.
The CRC and Sivertson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The CRC is a major supporter of the Progressive Conservatives and has been one of the top beneficiaries of the Ford government’s controversial Skills Development Fund (SDF).
The union hosted a fundraiser for Labour Minister David Piccini’s riding association in 2024, and months later received the largest grant in that round of SDF funding at $14 million. Shortly after, the CRC announced it was endorsing Doug Ford’s PC Party for the first time.
I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT DAN SIVERSTON AND HIS INVESTIGATIVE CLOWN TEAM WERE STILL STUCK AT THE BORDER MAKING BALLOON ANIMALS
AND ONCE AGAIN DOUGY WHO IS DAN SIVERTSON.NOT ONE OF YOUR USUAL STOOGES.DID YOU GET YOURSELF A NEW USED CONDOM SALESMAN??
