Thursday, February 13, 2014

Flaherty's sudden conversion to thoughtfulness?

On the issue of income splitting, today we learn that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wants to take "a  long, hard analytical look … to see who it affects in this society and to what degree", 

Funny that Flaherty didn't take a " long, hard analytical look … to see who it affects in this society and to what degree" when he killed income trusts back in 2006, after being elected six months previously on a platform of "preserve income trusts by not imposing any new taxes on them". Instead Flaherty destroyed an essential retirement income savings vehicle for the 75% of Canadians without a workplace pension and by CAVING  to the interests of CEOs and lobbyists for the life insurance industry who were served by killing income trusts for their own narrow interests. Meanwhile Flaherty promoted his patent lie that "income trusts cause tax leakage", which all reputable analysts have proven to be false (Royal Bank, BMO, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, HLB Decision Economics, etc.) Instead Flaherty's reckless and hasty decision lead to a wave of foreign takeovers of Canadian businesses formed as trusts (eg Prime West Energy trust taken over by Abu Dhabi Energy) amounting to over $100 billion in takeovers that created REAL TAX LEAKAGE, to the tune of $1.2 billion a year. To learn more about Flaherty's gross incompetence click on this article by Professor Stanbury entitled "Leadership? Here’s Ten Reasons Why the Tax on Income Trusts Was a Public Policy “Train Wreck”

Flaherty's only reason for opposing income splitting is for his own legacy concerns. Flaherty is hell bent on leaving his post as Finance Minister with a budget surplus in that year. That can't come soon enough for any of us, Flaherty's departure that is. Meanwhile he expects that we will all overlook the $176.4 BILLION in debt that Flaherty has burdened all Canadians with, during his 6 years of fiscal recklessness and incompetence.

4 comments:

Bruce Benson said...

To everyone who thinks the Conservatives are good managers of the economy with a steady hand on the tiller.

rockfish said...

Has it not crossed anyone's mind that this policy 'spat' is nothing more than a useful, even planned, distraction from the real bush-burning they are doing with regards to Canadian election laws? The At Issue panel spent the whole 20 minutes musing what Flaherty, Harper, Kenney et al were thinking; in the meantime, Canadians who may have their democratic rights curtailed are busy cheering on our OLympic athletes. All to convenient, with Flaherty looking more and more like a guy ready to take that walk in the snow. What Canadians don't know...

Brent Fullard said...

Good point rockfish! In response, I blogged this today:

Income splitting spat is simply the means to divert attention away from Fair Elections Act.

http://caiti-online.blogspot.ca/2014/02/income-splitting-spat-is-simply-means.html

Anonymous said...

the ordinary Joe balanced the budget