Welcome, Minister.
Madame Ablonczy pointed out that we did hear witnesses who pointed to some dangers in the income trust sector, but the fact remains that the promise had been made not to tax it, and you did. What could have been a surgical strike was a nuclear bomb. Lots of money was lost. The Governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge, said there were some investment needs in Canada for which trusts were a good vehicle forward, a good instrument forward. You, yourself, I believe, have agreed with that by leaving the REITs in.
What I fail to understand is this. You now have a proposal on the table for modification of your plan, a proposal that maintains the principle that you want to look at—stop the proliferation of trusts—but one that answers to all those other needs by permitting them when it's the proper tool, when it's the proper instrument, thus reducing the hit on individual Canadians.
We have heard that large institutional investors were not hit by your decision, that things get mitigated over the medium to short term for them, but individual investors were hit very hard. Now you refuse to consult with the industry and you refuse to study or even discuss a proposal put forward by Mr. McCallum to mitigate some of those negative effects. I fail to understand that, Minister.