December 16, 2004

Ontario Government Trust Liabilities Act

In a statement today, CAIF Chairman Stephen Probyn applauded the action of the Ontario Government in passing the Trust Beneficiaries Liability Act.

“This is a very important moment for the development of income funds in Canada. Ontario is home to a large and divers group of business trusts and they welcome the legislation as do trusts in other sectors.”

We want to thank all the people who have worked on the passage of this long awaited legislation, in particular our colleges at CIPPREC and Ministers Gerry Phillips and Greg Sorbara.

The Trust Beneficiaries Liability Act is contained in Bill 106 which was passed Thursday, December 16, 2004 and will come into effect once it has received Royal Assent in the New year. The date of implementation will be January 1, 2005.

George Kesteven, Investor Relations Manager for PrimeWest Energy agrees that this legislation is most welcome. “It now provides a level of comfort for our institutional investors by taking away any uncertainty around liability. Essentially, it now puts trust unit holders on an equal footing with shareholders of corporations, which is great news.”

“We are pleased that one more obstacle to the inclusion of income funds in the S&P Composite Index has been eliminated,” said Margaret Lefebvre, Executive Director of CAIF.

For further information please contact:

Margaret Lefebvre, Executive Director
CAIF
514-935-4131