Ghost of income trusts betrayal haunts Harper's Halloween

OTTAWA – On Halloween, the one-year anniversary of the Conservative government's "income trust tax massacre", the Green Party today reiterated that the decision to tax income trusts was a mistake. "When they taxed income trusts, Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Flaherty not only broke a campaign promise, they failed to produce any evidence to justify their claim that income trusts caused tax leakage," said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. "Income trusts were already taxed when dividends were paid out to individual investors. Over a million Canadians invested in income trusts, based on the assumption that Mr. Harper would keep his word. Tragically, many lost their entire life and retirement savings." As a result of the hasty Conservative decision to tax income trusts, investors saw a rapid devaluation of this type of investment. The overall loss was $30 billion. "Another effect of this devilish new tax structure is that foreign equity firms benefit at the expense of individual investors," added Green Party Finance critic Peter Graham. "An April 2007 report from the CIBC states that rather than reducing supposed tax leakage, the Conservative decision transferred 'the benefits of tax-advantaged capital structure from small individual investors (largely Canadian) to large, sophisticated institutional pools of capital (largely foreign)'." Mr. Graham added that it's not too late for Mr. Harper and Mr. Flaherty to make amends for their cruel Halloween trick and lay to rest the ghost of the income trust betrayal. He called on the government to repair damage done to Canadian investors. "The spookiest part is that Canadians have found themselves with a government that simply can't be trusted to keep its promises."