November 27th, 2006

Hon. Jim Flaherty, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Finance
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

Dear Minister:

I am writing to you on behalf of my many constituents who are very disappointed with the decision made by your government to introduce a tax on income trusts.

They are especially disappointed that your Conservative government would break your promise to Canadians made during the last election that "only the Conservatives will give seniors security by pledging to levy no new taxes on income trusts." (Conservative Party of Canada PC Issue Backgrounder, Security for Seniors, 9 December 2005). Many Canadians invested their hard-earned money based on this promise and now are paying the price for this misplaced trust.

It would seem to me that a fairer approach would have been to grandfather all existing trusts for at least ten years before taxing them; or to exempt and cap existing income trusts forever. This would protect those who were invested in these income trusts at the time of your announcement, and at the same time protect the federal income tax base into the future.

Attempting to appease seniors with pension income splitting will not work. While it may have a marginal impact on the lives of some couples, hundreds of thousands of single seniors - the majority of them women - will not see any benefit from this policy.

I sincerely hope that you will reconsider this decision.

Yours sincerely,

Hon. Roy Cullen, P.C., M.P.
Etobicoke North