Dhaliwal holds townhall with local residents to discuss the Conservative government’s broken promise on income trusts

For Immediate Release

(Surrey) Sukh Dhaliwal, MP for Newton-North Delta, last night held a Town Hall meeting with local residents of Delta and Surrey to discuss the issue of income trusts. In his opening remarks to residents Dhaliwal said,

“I have called this meeting because I felt it was necessary. In my constituency office and my Ottawa office, I have received more correspondence on this one issue than anything else. I can write my responses to you, do what I can in Ottawa, but first and foremost, I felt it was necessary to have a real dialogue, in person, about this issue. As you know, I was elected as your Liberal MP and I can certainly tell you what a Liberal government would do, as a start, to respond to this. But to be quite honest, this is less about a partisan message than a chance to really hear from all of you and explore all the options we have to rectify this problem, because I don’t think your voices have truly been heard.”

During the Town Hall Dhaliwal outlined the three major policy objectives of the Liberal Plan on Income Trusts which are to minimize the loss of savings now; to preserve the strengths of the sector; and to create tax fairness while making sure that corporations simply do not become trusts for tax purposes. Dhaliwal also stated that the Government should cancel the 31.5 percent tax regime and it should replaced with a 10 percent tax paid by the companies, a tax that could be refundable to all Canadians.

“This ten percent plan has the support of a wide range of market analysts it was a part of the Finance Committee’s recommendations in Ottawa. Gordon Tait, a highly respected analyst with BMO Capital Markets, says about two thirds of the losses can be recovered. Pardon the expression, but that’s a conservative estimate,” said Dhaliwal

“As it stands now, the damage continues. As you probably read in the news this week, Canadian trust companies are being bought by foreign, not Canadian, interests. And the losses that hard working families and seniors have suffered remain just that and their voices being heard is only a first step. I believe effective communications are essential on this front and as a video from Kelowna MP Ron Cannan’s last meeting with his constituents reveals, some people do not want your stories to be told. We can and must move forward on getting this government to listen.” concluded Dhaliwal.

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Media Contact:
Kyle Harrietha
613-266-9859
Dhalis7@parl.gc.ca