2006-2007 not only hurt the assets and diminished quality of life for Canadian investors. The Conservative Party won the Federal election on the basis that they and their leader, Stephen Harper promised to protect income trusts from additional taxation. By frightening investors into professionally managed funds, their policy-driven volatility strengthened the oligopoly among Canadian banks and financial services. In a January 12, 2007 paper Fortin outlined his concerns regarding the claim of tax leakage. Flaherty stated in his October 31, 2006, policy statement "If left unchecked, these corporate decisions would result in billions of dollars in less tax revenue for the federal government to invest in the priorities of Canadians, including more personal income tax relief" but Minister Flaherty has not documented the claimed losses nor the methodology used to estimate them. Fortin's paper gives several examples on how the tax on income trusts could lead to a loss in government tax revenue. Analyst Gordon Tait also raised concerns about the lack of consultation and misconceptions surrounding the change in tax policy on trusts in "The Inconvenient Truth About Trusts", although Mr. Tait also notes that he recognizes "the dilemma the Finance Minister found himself in," and that "the potential for a large number of corporate conversions to income trusts necessitated some kind of action." A December 11, 2006 "Income Trust Report" by PricewaterhouseCoopers reviewed the surveys and studies conducted in 2004 and 2005, the economic benefits and impact of income trusts in Canada. The report concluded that income trusts do have a place in Canadian capital markets and the 'Tax Fairness Plan' is unfair to Canadian investors who hold trusts in a tax-deferred Registered Retirement Savings Plan or a Registered Retirement Income Fund. Analyst Cameron Renkas examined the Department of Finance assertion that the United States and Australia have taken action to shut down flow-through structures. In his research paper "Digging Deeper" he gives a perspective on how the United States taxes publicly traded flow-through entities and master limited partnerships, the US equivalent of Canadian income trusts. Analyst Dirk Lever wrote on January 15, 2007: "We cannot understand why any Canadians would support double taxation of retirement benefits - it affects all of us eventually." Mr. Lever also looked at the Conservative government's policy in his research paper "Deep Dive into Tax Issues: Canadian Pensioners Taxed Twice on Canadian Corporate Dividends". In the report Mr. Lever questions the logic