Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of 800 fisher people in Newfoundland and Labrador.
In 1998 the federal government asked fishermen to voluntarily retire from the fishery in exchange for a retirement benefit. However, because of wrong information provided by Revenue Canada, 100% of the benefit was taxed as capital gains, instead of 25%. A hundred and fifty fishermen who had not followed the advice of Revenue Canada at the time saved thousands of dollars, and now the remaining fishermen are asking for just and fair treatment. They are asking the government to reimburse them for the extra thousands of dollars that they did pay and in fact, to which they are entitled.
The petitioners are calling on the government to reimburse this money under the fairness provisions of the Income Tax Act.