Press Release: December 17, 2003

CAIF/CIPPEC Praise Ontario Cømmitment on Income Funds

Toronto – The Canadian Association of Income Funds (CAIF) and the Canadian Institute of Public and Private Real Estate Funds (CIPREC) commended the Ontario government’s pledge in today’s Financial Statement to extend protections to unit holders in Income Funds.

“We are very pleased to see that the Ontario government plans to give the same protections to Income Fund unit holders that it gives to shareholders in publicly traded corporations”, said CAIF Chairman Stephen Probyn. “CAIF has been encouraging governments across the country to provide this protection from liability, and we’re happy to see Ontario commit to this.”

The statement, delivered to the legislature by Finance Minister Greg Sorbara, promised that in an effort to promote “fair effective and efficient financial markets” the Liberal government would “propose technical legislative changes to clarify that investors in publicly traded trusts will not be liable for the activities of the trust.”

“We were delighted to see this in the Minister’s statement.” Said CIPREC Executive Director Michael Brooks. “We hope the government will move forward with it quickly and we look forward to seeing the legislative changes introduced in the spring session.”

Stephen Probyn, Chairman of CAIF, at 416-777-2800
Michael Brooks, Executive Director of CIPPREC, at 416-642-2700 ext. 25
Margaret Lefebvre, Executive Director of CAIF, at 514-935-4131