Mr. Speaker, I present this income trust broken promise petition on behalf of Mrs. Irene Corridore from Ontario who remembers the Prime Minister boasting about his apparent commitment to accountability when he said that the greatest fraud was a promise not kept.
The petitioners would remind the Prime Minister that he promised never to tax income trusts but recklessly broke the promise by imposing a 31.5% punitive tax which permanently wiped out $25 billion of hard-earned retirement savings to over two million Canadians, particularly seniors. Not only was this profoundly unfair, but expert testimony proved that the decision was based on flawed methodology and incorrect assumptions.
The petitioners, therefore, call upon the government, first, to admit that the decision to tax income trusts was based on flawed methodology and incorrect assumptions; second, to apologize to those who were unfairly harmed by this broken promise; and third, to repeal the punitive 31.5% tax on income trusts.