CARP denies trust leak rumour

The focus on income trusts has gone from tax leakage to policy leakage, ever since the Finance Department proposed deterring conversions by cutting dividend taxes. Suspicions about an insider information leak have been running rampant since dividend paying company shares enjoyed an otherwise impromptu rally, just hours before the November 23 proposal was released.

The Canadian Association for the Fifty-Plus (CARP) is denying that the organization had any prior knowledge about Finance Minister Ralph Goodale’s decision not to increase taxes on income trusts.

Reports have surfaced in various media outlets that CARP associate executive director, William Gleberzon said his group was alerted that a decision had been reached. Today CARP says that no details of the dividend decision were leaked, except that it would soon be announced.

“We were told that Mr. Goodale wanted to resolve the uncertainty and that there would be an announcement soon and that was it” says Gleberzon. “We knew what everybody else knew, when they knew it.”

In a press release issued last night, CARP railed against comments published on the personal website of Warren Kinsella, a former Liberal Party strategist under Jean Chretien, who has been sharply critical of the party under Paul Martin.

CARP says Kinsella’s website “mused” that a senior’s organization had been briefed by Ministerial aides on what was coming before it did.

“CARP challenges Mr. Kinsella to back up this irresponsible claim!” the group said in the press release. This morning, however, the association was suddenly taking a more conciliatory tone. The comments are no longer on Kinsella’s website.

“I don’t know where that rumour came from,” Gleberzon said today. “We’re not suggesting that he was the source of the rumour. We’re not impugning his integrity whatsoever. I want to make that clear.”

Filed by Steven Lamb, Advisor.ca, steven.lamb@advisor.rogers.com