The sense of despondency in the income trust market has lifted somewhat, but don't take this as any indication that trusts are safe.
While investors are easing back into the sector after the carnage earlier this month, there's a risk of further damage when Ottawa finally decides how to address its concerns about trusts. Want to do your utmost to dissuade the feds from doing anything too harsh? Then add your voice to those of the many investors who have already spoken out on this issue.
The Finance Department is accepting input from the public on trusts until the end of the year, which means there's still plenty of time to act. You can write or e-mail directly to Finance Minister Ralph Goodale and his department, or sign one of a few on-line petitions. If you want to learn more about the trust issue before commenting, there are several on-line discussions forums worth a look.
The easiest way to have your say about trusts is to contact Finance directly. The e-mail address is trusts-fiducies@fin.gc.ca, the fax number is 613-943-8436 (what, you were expecting toll-free?) and the mailing address is Denis Normand, Tax Policy Branch, Business Income Tax Division, Department of Finance, 17th floor, East Tower, 140 O'Connor St., Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0G5. If you want to e-mail Mr. Goodale, you can use his parliamentary address at Goodale.R@parl.gc.ca or his constituency address at goodale@sasktel.net.
It's also worthwhile contacting your member of Parliament, especially if he or she is a Liberal and thus sensitive to how the trust issue might affect the government's minority status in the next election. You can get contact information for your MP through the Government of Canada website at Canada.gc.ca (look under "Government Contacts").
There are several petitions for Mr. Goodale circulating on the Internet. The largest one that I could find had 1,307 signatures but was closed. The second-largest had 611 signers and you'll find it at trustinvestor.com/petition. There's a just-started petition at petitiononline.com/lita1/petition/html, and another on the website of the federal Conservative Party at http://www.conservative.ca.
The Tory petition seems more like an exercise in political partisanship, than a real attempt to influence the government, what with its introductory comments about "a government addicted to taking too much money from Canadians' pockets" and a government that needs to stop "attacking seniors and ordinary Canadians saving for retirement."
If you're going to get involved in the trust debate, make an effort to be informed about the issues. Much as investors think they occupy the moral high ground on trusts, the government has raised some legitimate questions about their impact on taxes and economic productivity.
To sort out the various arguments, try visiting an on-line investing forum with an active discussion about government intervention in the trust market. If you're a senior and want to hear what your peers have to say, then go to 50plus.com, click on "Forums" and then on the "Investing" link under the heading "Money." The busiest discussion here is titled "Why is the federal finance department looking at income trusts?" and it's well worth a look if you want a primer on the trust debate without shrill rhetoric.
Another discussion worth catching is located on the iTrustInvestor website at trustinvestor.com. This isn't as heavily used a forum as some, but the participants know their stuff. Financial Webring at financialwebring.com/forum is a source of chatter on investing topics of all types and it has a discussion of trusts going on in its "General Finance" area. On the MoneySense.ca website you'll find investors talking about Mr. Goodale and trusts in the forum titled "Income Investing."
Stockhouse.ca's BullBoards are a good place to go if you want to see what other investors think about individual trusts and stocks, but there's also a discussion about Mr. Goodale's possible course of action. To find it, go to the "Member Forums" area, and then click on "Accounting" and again on "FTE Tax Issues." FTE means flow-through entity and it's Goodale-speak for income trust.
A word of advice if you're writing the government: Keep it simple and keep it personal. It's unlikely that you'll convince Mr. Goodale to start loving trusts, but you may just be able to put a human face on all those numbers being crunched over at Finance these days.
© The Globe and Mail
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