Controversial income trust just issue won't go away

The Hill Times, April 27th, 2009
LETTERS

Controversial income trust just issue won't go away

Re: "Why this pesky income trust issue refuses to go away..." (The Hill Times, April 20, p. 17).

I'd like to take a moment to thank The Hill Times for allowing Brent Fullard, citizen journalist extraordinaire, the opportunity to express his views on behalf of income trust investors and all Canadian taxpayers, who have been adversely affected by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's inane and self-immolating trust policy.

Yes, these are the same investors who have been forgotten by the government in their rush for expediency in their desire to remove income trusts from investment portfolios everywhere. Without Mr. Fullard's tireless efforts and deep inside knowledge of the Canadian capital markets, this issue would have been buried by the "new" Conservative party back on Oct. 31, 2006.

Michael Popovich
Rodney, Ont.


• Thank you for publishing Brent Fullard's piece on the income trust fiasco. I know there are a couple of million people who were hurt, some devastated, by this and for some reason the media have pretty much stayed away from it. I really hope that you and some other courageous media people will try to figure out what happened.

Yes, Mr. Harper gets full blame. If he hadn't promised to protect Canadian seniors and leave income trusts alone we would have kept clipping bonds and, although our retirement would have been hard, it was possible. Now? I can't believe we were stupid enough to believe him.

They still refuse to disclose why they did it and we're left wondering what kind of shenanigans they're up to. I sure hope you will try to get to the bottom of it.

Neal Fisher
Winnipeg, Man.


• I want to thank you for publishing Brent Fullard's article about the income trust issue. This is an important issue for many of Canada's seniors and other investors.

For seniors, they are an important way to generate income to live on. The vast majority of Canadians do not have government pensions and must rely on themselves.

We must not forget the despicable actions of our government to go unchallenged.

When Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced his tax on income trusts all his reasons for doing it could have been proven false by any reporter in the land.

Why are public servant pension plans allowed to continue while ordinary Canadians cannot? Why must ordinary Canadian pensioners pay double taxes on income from trusts?

There are many ways to assure tax fairness but taking from one group and giving to a much smaller privileged group is not the way.

Rick Drysdale
Sidney, B.C.


• We need to keep this subject current and make Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty know that this decision of taxing income trusts as corporations is ludicrous. Our senior income has drastically been affected by the arbitrary way in which it was mandated. They can change this and let us make them more accountable.

Gail Clark
Burlington, Ont.