Monday, December 15, 2008

McCallum and Brison to Flaherty “Come clean with the numbers”



John McCallum and Scott Brison met with Jim Flaherty today to discuss their respective views on economic stimulus.

The upshot of that meeting is that McCallum and Brison are calling on Flaherty to “Come clean with the numbers”.

This is what income trusts investors have been calling for since November 1, 2006, as we have lost $35 billion in our retirement savings.

This standard of disclosure can not be selectively applied by the Liberals, simply in circumstances of political leverage to them.

We demand that Flaherty disclose the analysis and methodology that (presumably) support his argument that income trusts cause tax leakage, as many others have called upon the Government to do.

Why are we cow towing to a minority party that’s on the run? Come clean with the numbers. Prove the case or drop the tax.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Drop the tax
AND
allow 100% (not 50%) of historical losses in trusts be deductible, since it was Govt. mismanagement that caused the losses. They'd be getting off lightly by avoiding having to compensate millions of investors for the decline in unit price that did not get steep enough to cause an actual loss for tax purposes.

Those SOBs have already destroyed the $35 billion in value and what would have been increased tax revenue. Just eliminating the tax in 2011 is not justice. It is saying you're "sorry" and "won't do it again", after already committing a murder.

A

Anonymous said...

McCallum and Brison to Flaherty “Come clean with the numbers”

Kind of like asking a whore to be faithful

Whore being non gender specific

Can we really trust anything from Cons except more deceit ?!

Sunstone

Anonymous said...

Brent,
The proper expression is 'kowtow', from Mandarin Chinese meaning "To kneel and touch the forehead to the ground in expression of deep respect, worship, or submission, as formerly done in China."

Indeed, Flaherty wants Canadians to bow-down to his fabrications. At FINA, McCallum did not do stand-out work on this file, but the NDP were... how do you say "obsequious, showing servile deference"?

Anonymous said...

Kephalos:

Yes "kow tow" is the correct spelling as I know it. I didn't however know the source of the term was Chinese

I went with "cow tow" because that is how I have seen it used by others. Before posting this blog article, I googled the word "kow tow" and found it used more frequently used as "cow tow".

Why I felt the need to dumb it down, is beyond me. Maybe I was hoping that Flaherty would read the blog?

Dr Mike said...

Unless the Liberals demand an answer for us , Flaherty will never go there.

The last thing he wants to do is to revisit the issue of tax leakage since his position is much less tenable than any other time since 2006.

The losses due to his tax implications for 2011 are now concrete & there for all to see--without the credit crunch , the losses would be even more devastating to the country.

Flaherty knows his best bet is to lay low & hope it goes away.

Th NDP & the Bloc will not take-up our cause & the provinces cannot be bothered.

That leaves the Liberals as our only hope & I am not sure if they will be willing unless it is to there political advantage.

Dr Mike Popovich.

Mary P said...

Speaking of "kow tow-ing" , how did Flaherty ever talk the provincial & territorial Finance Ministers into supporting his trust tax.

It seems that they somehow agreed that there is tax leakage on a provincial scale. In the case of Ontario I find this hard to believe since the majority of trust units are held in this province.

Does it not make sense that if investors pay tax at a much higher rate than corporations , then Ontario should come out substantially ahead of the game.'

Something does not add up here. Is it possible that the provincial & territorial ministers were promised something else.

Just makes me wonder.

Mary Popovich.

Anonymous said...

Forget all the posturing about who's numbers are the truth. That will never be resolved!! Have an election between the Socialist Coalition Party of Eastern Canada and Quebec versus the Conservative Party of Canada. Let the winner rule.

Dr Mike said...

I was a Progressive Conservative for over 37 years--the crude implementation of the trust tax caused me to change my affiliation.

I blame the "New" Conservative (not to be confused with the PC party which it is not) for the advent of the coalition--poking the eyes of the opposition just one too many times & making false statements in the economic update were the lethal blow--none of this was the fault of the coalition partners.

Mr Flaherty & crew are the only ones to blame here.

Do I see the prints of Guy Giorno??

DR Mike Popovich.

Anonymous said...

Anon said:

"Forget all the posturing about who's numbers are the truth. That will never be resolved!!"


What numbers? We don't have numbers from Flaherty.....just blacked out documents?

What do you recommend we do now....roll over? What happened to Harper's lofty claims of being accountable and transparent?