Published: Sunday, July 15, 2007 | 1:20 PM ET
Canadian Press: GREGORY BONNELL
TORONTO (CP) - One-third of Canada's senior and near-senior citizens are worried they'll outlive their bank accounts, and half of those over 60 holding jobs say they're working because they need the money, a new poll suggests as a record number of Canadians face the so-called golden years. More...
John McCallum Responds to Jim Flaherty's quote in todays Packet and Times
For Immediate Release
July 13, 2007
Flaherty Must Retract Income Trust Lie
OTTAWA – Given that the RCMP has completely exonerated the Liberal government from any wrongdoing concerning income trusts, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty must immediately retract his utterly false claim that Liberals “leaked the information” that caused people to lose money in the stock market, Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum said today.
“Mr. Flaherty knows full well that the RCMP thoroughly investigated whether there was a breach of information, and completely exonerated the Liberal government,” said Mr. McCallum.
Mr. Flaherty is quoted in today’s Orillia Packet and Times commenting on the Liberal plan for income trusts saying:
"The Liberals had a plan to do precisely what we did … They then leaked the information. So, then people lost money on the stock exchanges in Canada due to their incompetence."
Mr. McCallum pointed to the RCMP’s own February 15, 2007, press release which says “the RCMP has conducted an exhaustive investigation.” He further noted that no one associated with the Liberal Party was charged with any wrongdoing and that the RCMP took the extraordinary step of saying that “the investigation into the income trusts matter is now concluded.”
“Mr. Flaherty and his government are rightfully facing a lot of anger from Canadians on their own handling of the income trust issue, but that doesn’t make it a right to lash out and lie about the Liberal government’s handling of this issue,” said Mr. McCallum. “There is a government that cost investors billions of dollars in income trust losses, but that is Mr. Flaherty’s own government.
“I know Mr. Flaherty is angry because Prime Minister Harper hung him out to dry by so brazenly breaking the election commitment not to tax income trusts, but that does not justify Mr. Flaherty deceitfully claiming that the Liberals had ever planned to do what the government did on income trusts or continue his party’s outrageous falsehoods against the Liberals when the RCMP has found the allegations are baseless,” said Mr. McCallum
Mr. McCallum noted that today’s comments were just the latest misstep by the Finance Minister. He listed other examples of Mr. Flaherty’s incompetence including:
• Declaring an end to all federal-provincial bickering while delivering a budget that ushered in the most intense period of fighting between the federal government and provinces in years;
• Being forced to amend his own budget provisions on interest deductibility; and,
• Signing an open letter in a Nova Scotia newspaper that led Premier Rodney Macdonald to break off discussions on Equalization.
Contact:
Office of the Hon. John McCallum
MP for Markham-Unionville
(613) 996-3374
By Nathan Taylor
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - 07:00
Local News - Three days before federal finance minister Jim Flaherty visits the area, his critic in the Opposition, Liberal MP John McCallum, was in Orillia denouncing the Conservative government’s October announcement that income trusts would be taxed.
At a town-hall-style meeting at Couchiching Golf and Country Club yesterday, McCallum, a former senior vice-president and chief economist with the Royal Bank of Canada, blasted the government’s decision to slap a 31.5- per-cent tax on existing income trusts.
“The Conservative party could not have been clearer during the election campaign that they would not tax income trusts. Partly as a consequence of that, people took the prime minister for his word and flooded into income trusts,” said McCallum, also a former minister of national defence, veterans affairs and national revenue. “Essentially, the government dropped a nuclear bomb on all the existing income trusts.”
Joining McCallum at the front of the room were Simcoe North federal Liberal candidate John Waite and Brent Fullard, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors, who is also in opposition to the Conservative plan.
“This tax is designed not to raise revenues. It’s designed to kill this market, force all these income trusts into corporations,” Fullard told the audience of about 25.
After some introductory speeches, the guests opened the meeting to questions from the floor.
“I’ve had bigger crowds, but I haven’t had crowds with better questions,” McCallum said.
Waite set up the forum after receiving numerous inquiries regarding the Liberal plan for income trusts.
“The common response would be to fire back an e-mail telling them to ‘get a life,’” Waite quipped, referring to an e-mail faux pas in April by a staffer for Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton. “Instead, I fired an e-mail off to the finance critic asking him to come to Orillia to explain.”
Although there’s no set date for the next federal election, McCallum tried to make some fans yesterday by telling the audience of the Grits’ plan: scrapping the 31.5- per-cent tax and replacing it with a 10-per-cent income-trust distribution tax that would be refundable for all Canadian residents.
Flaherty will be at the Horseshoe Resort Thursday evening with his wife, Whitby-Ajax MPP Christine Elliott, for a Simcoe North Provincial Progressive Conservative Association fundraiser.
ntaylor@orilliapacket.com
Orillia Packet & Times
