NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 17, 2009
(Queen?s Park) Peter Shurman, MPP (Thornhill) and PC Critic for Economic Development and Trade says his constituents are outraged at a Ministry of Revenue plan to subject fractional ownership of cottage accommodations retroactively to the Land Transfer Tax Act.
?I?ve received letters and calls from constituents who have been advised that as members of owners? associations in what are effectively time shares, they will be subject to the Land Transfer Tax Act applied retroactively to the date of purchase of their membership,? says Shurman. ?This is at best a tax grab and certainly constitutes an abuse of the powers of taxation by this government.?
Shurman has written to Mr. Dalton McGuinty, to the Minister of Revenue and to the Minister of Finance asking for the Revenue Ministry to abandon this plan.
?Trying to identify new sources of revenue to finance budget deficits is one thing, but subjecting Ontarians to unfair taxation practices is another,? Shurman stated, adding that there is absolutely no justification for the Ministry to apply a land transfer tax to transactions where no transfer of land occurred. ?This is an attack on Ontarians and an attack on Ontario?s tourism industry for the purpose of bailing out the McGuinty government.?
Norm Miller, MPP (Parry Sound-Muskoka) and PC Finance Critic, agrees that the Ministry?s plan to tax fractional ownership retroactively is a threat to the tourism industry and economic development.
"I am very concerned by this government's regressive tax scheme to apply land transfer tax to fractional ownerships. That is why I personally asked the Finance Minister, Dwight Duncan to review and reconsider the policy. Applying the tax retroactively only adds insult to injury and can only be viewed as a tax grab," said Miller. "Fractional ownership represents the next generation of transient tourist accommodation and many older resorts and lodges have been reinvented and rejuvenated as a result. This policy could end all that and seriously damage the potential for economic development in many regions of the province," added Miller.
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For more information, please contact:
Monika Bujalska, Executive Assistant
Office of Peter Shurman, MPP (Thornhill)
416-325-2505, e-mail: monika.bujalska@pc.ola.org