Thursday, March 11, 2010

Is Paul Szabo the only MP acting in the interests of Canadians?


Yesterday in the House of Commons:

Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, this is probably one of the most significant petitions that I have delivered as a member in 16 years. It has to do with income trusts and it comes from the proponents of the Marshall Savings Plan to try to find some fairness and equity for pensioners.

These petitioners, from my riding of Mississauga South and from other surrounding areas, want to remind the House that the Prime Minister promised not to tax income trusts during the 2006 election, and then he broke that promise. He imposed a 31.5% punitive tax on those income trusts.

They also want to point out that in claiming that income trusts cause tax leakage, the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance did not provide the proper calculations, in fact, there were redacted documents. Notwithstanding, other reputable groups like HLB Decision Economics, BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and PricewaterhouseCoopers had in fact verified that there was no such justification.

They also point out that the income trusts did not cause a tax leakage. This has now resulted in the takeover of some 51 income trusts by foreigners and other non-taxable entities, which was a direct consequence and has three times as much tax leakage as was falsely alleged in the first place.

The income trusts also create an unlevel playing field between 75% of Canadians without pensions and those who must pay this punitive tax, and also adds to the risk of foreign takeover and for further tax losses.

And finally, that the Prime Minister prorogued Parliament for the specific purpose of recalibrating his policies and the budget to be tabled to Parliament on March 4, 2010, that addresses the needs of Canadians and deals with Canada's deficit and pension crisis that arose from the recent financial turmoil.

Therefore, these petitioners call on the Government of Canada to acknowledge that the government's financial justification for imposing the tax was flawed, and to recalibrate and remedy the matter it should adopt the Marshall savings plan as part of its budget 2010 on the basis of the following signatures, which I referred to, some 3,414 Canadians.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul Szabo for Prime Minister!

m.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, as Paul Szabo is an accountant, he is fully financially literate. He is also not beholden to those interests that wrathfully attacked income trusts using financially illiterate pawns in parliament.


Geoffrey

Anonymous said...

Yes, he needs to start dumbing down like Ignatieff who doesn't know shit from shine-ola

Anonymous said...

Brent:

Great work for Paul, this guy is star.

This guy is standing in the huddle like Dan Marino.

He stares you in the eye and says," now what , forget field goals we are going long and for 7 points "

JIC

Dr Mike said...

We need more accountants in the HoC & less fracking lawyers.

Way to go Paul , you da man.

Dr Mike Popovich

Anonymous said...

I appreciate what Mr. Szabo is doing for the retired people of Canada who lost much of their life savings because of the government's income trust tax decision. BB

Anonymous said...

Yahoo Paul Szabo! Thanks for restoring the faith for this country.
Nice to know he is a financially literate accountant. We should have someone like him running our finances.

Stan said...

Can Paul Szabo request a "Private Members Bill" to adopt the Marshall Savings Plan and then have it voted on by the House? This would give the MP's another chance to review all the facts concerning " Income Trust " legislation and have the opportunity to vote with all the information on the table.

Stan

Fillibluster said...

Stan:

In answer to your question about whether Szabo could introduce a Private Members Bill, here is the reply that I received from Paul Szabo today:

Brent,

At the beginning of each Parliament, members names are drawn to establish the order in which they can have a Bill considered by the House. We are now working on number 61 and I am 114. It could be 2 years before I get on and we will have an election before then.

Paul

Stan said...

Hi Brent,

Thanks for the prompt reply.Is there any other options to get this issue before the "House" so that all members of Parliament could be fully informed on the consequences of this bad decision? While the decision was supported by the opposition parties it is obvious they were mislead. One would think they would be very upset over being "duped" and would want to get to the bottom of this issue.
It is obvious that the Liberal leadership have no interest in pursuing this and are more concerned with the treatment of Afghan detainees.For some convoluted reason they feel it is our responsibility to be the "Morality Policeman" for the world.Once we hand over the "terrorist" to the Afghan authorities our involvement is complete. If the Afghans rough up these "low lifes" its their decision. Who knows, they could very well be the one who planted a bomb and killed our soldier. So tell me the logic in continuing this ridiculous debate on their well being.
All I can say to the NDP and Liberals is "Grab a Life". and put some effort into things that matter to Canadians. Every one I have talked to thinks you are "crazy".
Lets get our Economy going and ensure our investment opportunities are secure and not tinkered with by politicians who don't have clue. Its one matter to get "hammered" in the stock market by the unpredictability of market forces but it is not acceptable to be "Hammered" by the gov't without justification.

Stan

Stan