Canadians Weigh In On Potential Income Trust Taxes

Toronto, ON - According to a new national Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of the Canadian Association of Income Funds, a strong majority of Canadians (66%) are of the opinion new taxes on income trusts are a bad idea as the government is unfairly changing the rules on investors, including retirees and pensioners, who made investment decisions based on the previous rules. Seventeen percent, however, believe it is a "good idea".

When asked to evaluate what they feel has caused the recent significant drop in the value of income trust investments, 33% of Canadians say they believe this drop "was caused mostly by statements from the Minister of Finance about the changing tax treatment of income trusts". But, just under half (46%) feel this drop has been driven mostly by regular economic forces. Of those Canadians who live in households which own trust units, 44% believe that the Minister of Finance's statements were primarily to blame for the drop in unit values.

One-quarter (23%) of Canadians answered "yes" to the question as to whether anyone in their household owned trust units. Seventy-three percent answered "no" to the same question.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid/Canadian Association of Income Trusts poll conducted from November 8th to November 10th, 2005. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.
Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Dr. Darrell Brickera>
President & COO
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900