Goodbye David Dodge....we hardly knew ya

My only exposure to David Dodge over the course of his seven years as the Governor of the Bank of Canada was the sad role of complete capitulation that he played on the Income Trust matter. Here is a person who one minute (early October 2006), of his own volition, was saying that income trusts had an important role to play in making the capital markets more complete, and three weeks later he was allowing his name, his office and the institution he ostensibly heads to be enjoined in one of the greatest misrepresentations of discernable facts this country has witnessed , namely the wholly unproven construct known as tax leakage, to be used as a specious argument that served as the central underpinning of a far reaching tax policy that was hoisted on Canadians by an intellectually corrupt government without prior notice and without public consultation (save and except massive back room lobbying by self interested CEOs, many of them unregistered to be doing so), and thereby causing great financial hardship to a vast number of Canadians and irreparable harm to the integrity of our capital markets and the perception by investors, both domestic and foreign, that Canada is a stable and predictable investment climate.

So there you have it Mr. Dodge. In the minds of many Canadians this is the legacy that you are leaving behind. Whatever other deeds you may have done over the course of your career that others might claim made you a good Governor of the Bank of Canada have now been eclipsed and rendered irrelevant and insignificant, since your final act of office was to allow yourself, your office and the institution you head to be politicized. Lest you think that you aren’t being given the benefit of the doubt, I would put to you sir that the matters before you and on which you opined are all factually discernable in nature. There is a hard truth to the allegation of tax leakage that is readily discernable in nature. There is a hard truth to the allegation of the impact on the Canadian economy of income trusts versus corporations to be discerned and which has already been discerned in two very comprehensive studies. You made no effort to discern either or to even acquaint yourself with the preexisting body of evidence , despite repeated attempts by our association to present the facts to you. Facts from highly credible groups, like HLB Decision Economics. PricewaterhouseCoopers. Deloitte, BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets, Canaccord Capital etc etc.

In the end you deliberately avoided the truth and you did it for political ends. Imagine, instead of being the Governor of the Bank of Canada, you were the Auditor General and you allowed such a dynamic to prevail over your conduct as Auditor General. Your absence of fortitude in upholding the integrity of your office on the matter of income trusts represents a very sad point in the history of the position you held and the institution you represented. One can only hope that the next occupant of the Governor of the Bank of Canada will reassert the integrity of that important office you are now vacating, however we will have to skip at least one generation, since the incoming Governor, Mark Carney, could not have been more involved in this intellectually corrupt scheme to defraud average Canadians to achieve the narrow interests of the corporate elite than if he were still an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.

Below is just one representative example of how you knowingly allowed yourself, your office and the institution you purported to represent to be used for political ends. A hero sir, you most assuredly are not. You failed at the time of your greatest calling. For reasons known only to yourself. Evidently transparency and accountability carry no province with you.


From: Brent Fullard
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:43:51 -0500
Subject: Gross Mistatements by Judy Wasylycia-Leis on ROB TV

Denis Schuthe
Chief Communications officer
Bank of Canada

Mr Schuthe:

I was just watching ROB TV with Kevin O’Leary broadcast nationally.

I believe NDP Finance Critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis just made a gross misrepresentation of the testimony of Governor of the Bank of Canada David Dodge, by stating words to the effect that Mr. Dodge agrees with the DoF’s assertion of tax leakage. As you know these assertions are wholly unproven and highly suspect based on testimony provided by Dennis Bruce of HLB Decision Economics, who can be reached at 613-234-0080 or 709-632-1708 (cell). I am sure you agree with me that such allusions as to the Governor’s position on this matter are not helpful in any way to this “debate”. Please contact Ms. Wasylycia-Leis and ask her to retract or correct her comments, or failing that please issue a clarifying statement on what the BOC’s view is on the specific matter of “tax leakage” so that others like Ms Wasylycia-Leis do not take such liberties in speaking on the BoC’s behalf.

As I have stated to you previously, the integrity of the Canadian capital markets is at risk, a matter which I am sure is of great importance to the BOC and the Governor.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.


Brent Fullard
President and CEO
Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors