ABBREVIATED COPY OF NOTE:

TO: Clerk of the Finance Committee

This note follows up on my phone call earlier today in which you welcomed an email note to the Finance Committee address.

This is a request to appear before the Finance Committee as an expert witness to address considerations of income trusts, their taxation and implications for Canadians and the Canadian economy.

I would like to make a brief statement informed by deep perspective gathered over years of experience as the Editor of TrustInvestor.com, but more immediately, as the volunteer President of the non-partisan research and education organization, iTrust Institute. The organization was launched by individuals during the Department of Finance Consultation in 2005, a process that was never fully completed in the view of many.

Institute members wanted to fully understand the risks, returns, opportunities, policy requirements and implications surrounding income trusts and the income trust market in Canada, and in a global context.

With a year of research by the Institute, we can offer a number of observations that I can make that will help inform the Committee. Most important, I would like to add perspective that the Canadian public has not yet heard articulated in the House of Commons. And I’d like to offer balanced insight that can address Canadian interests and policy considerations in a broad context not possible for trade or service organizations that will appear before the Finance Committee.

If you can let me know of any other requirements or scheduling considerations regarding the upcoming hearings, I would appreciate it. I would be traveling to Ottawa on personal expense to make such a presentation.

I look forward to hearing back from you with some confirmation of Committee acceptance of my request.

Thanking you in advance,

Sincerely,