behind double taxation of dividends, and claims that foreign investors pay less tax on distributions than domestic investors. The proposed solution, however, is not to retain the existing benefits of income trusts, but to have identical tax regimes for both corporate and income trust distributions (dividends). The report does not address the benefit received from tax deferred savings plans (such as RRSPs and pensions) at the time of contribution, nor the tax-free accumulation throughout the life of these plans. Hearings on the proposed changes to income trust taxation by the House of Commons' Finance Committee commenced January 30, 2007. John McCallum, the Liberal Finance critic, called on Minister Flaherty to explain the reasoning behind the change in income trust tax policy. In a February 8, 2007, news release McCallum said that "essentially they released close to a thousand pages of public documents, not one of which brings Canadians any closer to understanding what type of information or calculations led the Minister break his election promise and tax income trusts, either the Minister is in contempt of the committee's motion or he had absolutely no data from his own department before shutting down the sector and destroying tens of thousands of Canadians' life savings." In a July 9, 2007, interview on Business News Network, former Conservative Alberta Premier Ralph Klein criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Flaherty for their mishandling of the income trust issue and for not keeping their word on income trust taxation. According to the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors, the change in tax rules cost investors billions of dollars in market value. Harper had promised "not to raid Senior's nest eggs" by changing taxation rules for income trusts only a few months earlier during the 2006 federal election. Standing Committee on Finance report On February 28, 2007, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance released a report "Taxing Income Trusts: Reconcilable or Irreconcilable Differences?" Challenge under NAFTA On October 30, 2007, American citizens Marvin and Elaine Gottlieb filed a Notice of Intent to Submit a Claim to Arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The couple claimed that thousands of U.S. investors lost a total of $5 billion in the fall-out from the Conservative government's decision to tax income trusts in the energy sector at the same rates as corporations, removing the tax advantage of the income trust structure. Under the NAFTA, Canada