Mr. Speaker, Canadians have learned the hard way what it means to put their trust in the minority Conservative government's word.
Investors in income trusts have lost billions of dollars of their hard-earned money, which they planned on using in their retirement years. For the government to betray them by imposing a tax that it promised would not come has left them angry and jaded. Who can blame them?
Take the example of Albertan Gerry Collard. In an email sent to MPs entitled “The evaporation of my retirement fund”, Mr. Collard writes:
In appreciation of my vote, you and the Conservatives caused $170,000 of my life savings to evaporate overnight. In exchange of my $170,000 you give me seniors income splitting, I am still looking for the humour in this.
He concludes by saying, “I invested my entire life's savings in Income Trusts after you promised they would not be taxed”.
The Conservative government--