Opposition-Controlled Finance Committee Demands Lower Taxes on Income Trusts

OTTAWA (CP) – A powerful Commons committee has urged the Conservative government to scale back plans to tax income trusts.

In a new report, the opposition-controlled finance committee asked the government to shave off more than two-thirds of its proposed 31.5 per cent tax and replace it with a 10 per cent rate. While the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois control the committee and supported the proposal, they don’t have enough seats in the House of Commons to force the government to switch gears.

The NDP has supported the Tories’ unexpected – and campaign promise-breaking – decision to tax income trusts.

The move was defended as necessary to protect the federal treasury and also to keep Canadian companies innovative.

But Liberal MP John McCallum ridiculed the NDP for supporting a move which he said had cost Canadian investors $25 billion.

He added that NDP founder Tommy Douglas would be spinning in his grave to see his party abandon thousands of working people who saw their savings collapse.