Mr. Speaker, I also would like to present an income trust broken promise petition on behalf of Mr. Leif Stokkeland from Quebec who remembers that the Prime Minister was reflecting on his apparent commitment to accountability when he did quote the Gaelic proverb that the greatest fraud is a promise not kept.
The petitioners who signed this petition want to remind the Prime Minister that he promised not to tax income trusts and he broke that promise. He imposed a 31.5% tax, permanently wiping out about $25 billion of investment value of hard-earned retirement savings of over two million Canadians, and most of them were seniors.
The petitioners call upon the Conservative minority government to, first, admit that the decision to tax income trusts was based on flawed methodology as well as incorrect presumptions; second, to apologize to those who were unfairly harmed by this mother of all broken promises; and finally, to repeal this very punitive 31.5% tax on income trusts.