In the ethical seas over which Captain Martin Of Canada Steamship Lines sails, “blind trust” means a patch over one eye.
Canada had signed a double taxation treaty with Barbados in 1980 when the corporate taxes of both countries were roughly comparable. But in 1991, Barbados created a new class of offshore company, the “Barbados international business corporation,” whose tax rate would be 1%-2.5%. This created for Canadians, if they routed their business through a Barbados company, a 10-fold savings in taxes.
The auditor general of Canada, in her report of December, 2002, noted that $1.5 billion in taxes was being lost to the Canadian economy annually as a result of this agreement, and she called for a rewriting of the rules. She noted that all of these concerns had been present since 1992 — throughout the period when Martin was finance minister, but he made no changes.
Martin’s hypocrisy again was shown by his announcing in his first budget of February 1994 that he would tighten the regulations allowing Canadian companies to bring dividends of foreign affiliates back to Canada tax-free from a number of countries. But Barbados remained exempt. This allowed Canadian companies, including CSL, to avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in Canadian taxes by moving their foreign affiliates to Barbados.
Martin’s action did close certain tax havens, such as Liberia: CSL subsequently moved seven Liberian-registered ships to Barbados, where the tax haven continued. 
The fact that Martin has since transferred his controlling interest in CSL to his sons did nothing to prevent this conflict-of-interest situation continuing.
Canadian companies are now stashing more money into offshore tax havens than ever. Between 1990 and 2003, the amount soared from $11 billion to $88 billion, according to a Statistics Canada report last month.
John Crosbie, from Newfy, of course. No, on course.
G&S: Pirates of Martinspance: Yo, heave ho. here’s the booty, girbs and moys. See, the $$$$$. Booty for us Lieberals. Oak Island, my eye. Here is the Booty; Canada, prepared by my master, Truedough & his brethren. $$$$$ enough to bribe all the Canucks, the suckers.
Shovels ready…. Dig… It’s all ours… Ay, Captain Martin…
Sponsorship scandal
And thanks to “the internet”, a publication ban on testimony to the Gomery Commission is not terribly effective. Canadian readers should be advised that republication of internet rumours may be in violation of a court order. Remember: people may read…
LOL
maz2 you sure gotta liberal way with words…
Maybe we should invest in Barbados-based companies?
Kate shows the real Canadian flag….
These are canadian values.
the really frustrating thing about that article is that it’s all old news and it didn’t have one iota of influence on the outcome of the last election.
on the other, hand, just maybe, if certain outlets keep pounding away on this, even people as oblivious to realirty as the average ontario voter will one day wake up and realize the, ahem, position they are in.
The answer is not to close tax loopholes, but to reduce taxes across the board in Canada so that companies don’t need to shelter the money in other countries.
Nice little conflict of interest that Martin has going, eh?
maz2,
Don’t be forgetten to unload the fairy dust in the bowls of that there ship.
rob:
bowls or bowels; please clarify?
Damn fingers….. that’s what ya get at that speed…
Sorry maz2, what you said…bowels..
Liberals will never cut taxes across the board.They would lose their patronage trump card if they did.They use the tax code not to raise revenues as cost effectively as possible, but to reward their political supporters.
That’s what being a boss is. You steer the ship the best way you know. Sometimes it’s smooth. Sometimes you hit the rocks.
Corrado “Junior” Soprano