Hill Times: Letters to the Editor: February 15, 2010

Stop income trust bleeding, politicians

Re: “Stop the income trust bleeding: adopt the Marshall savings plan,” (The Hill Times, Feb. 8, p. 15).

The point of no return for income trusts and for their investors is fast approaching as the Jan. 1, 2010 deadline is nearly upon us. As W.T. Stanbury has pointed out, this piece of legislation was done in haste without any consultation whatsoever with the people who have the most to lose, the small investor. These people were lost in the shuffle.
They were lost in the struggle between big corporate Canada and the trust model itself. Big business found it could not compete for the investment dollar that was flowing readily to the higher yielding and more efficient trust model. They lobbied the government to have the competition removed and the rest is history as claims of tax loss was merely a
smoke screen to sell this to the public.

Now the small investor has been left with the mess. They needed a way to regain some of their lost savings while at the same time try to save the trust model that they had come to rely on to produce an income stream on which to live day to day. The small investor took the initiative and came up with the Marshall Plan which is a fine compromise where the investor wins and the government wins.

Hopefully, we have the politicians with the vision to see the benefits of this plan and that this vision will give them the will to stand up for the little guy.

Dr. Mike Popovich
Rodney, Ont.