Questions remain for Trudeau regarding small business

Today, NDP candidates Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) and Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont – La Petite-Patrie), raised new questions about Justin Trudeau and his tax shelter.

“Justin Trudeau’s insulting attitude toward small business in Canada shows he really doesn’t have a clue about the realities of the Canadian middle class. He claims that a ‘large percentage’ of small business owners use their businesses as a means to cheat on their taxes,” said Angus. “ New Democrats know that small business is a way of life, and the people who run small businesses are the engine of our economy. They know what it means to play by the rules and work hard to feed their family.

Angus questioned Trudeau’s dubious idea of what constitutes a small business:

“When Justin Trudeau was the Youth critic for the Liberal party he charged as much as $15,000 to speak to students. And he ran this money through his numbered company. He was making money off his family name and his role as an MP,” said Angus. “I speak in schools all the time. The most I ever received for speaking at a school was a gift mug or a pen.”

When asked yesterday if he used a numbered company to avoid paying taxes on his extra income, Trudeau replied:

“As for my own professional involvement as a public speaker, I followed all the rules.” – Justin Trudeau, September 10, 2015

“Questions still remain for Mr. Trudeau. Did he use a numbered company to avoid paying his fair share of taxes?” said Boulerice. “Does Mr. Trudeau know how many small businesses there are in his own riding of Papineau? Which ones, specifically, does he think are tax cheats?”

“Canadians deserve answers and Mr. Trudeau must apologize to the hard-working small business owners across this country for his comments,” said Boulerice.