The Minister of Finance has apparently responded positively to submissions from the Canadian Bar Association on the effect of the new reporting regime for tax avoidance transactions on solicitor-client privilege. In a letter to the Association dated January 11, 2011, Minister Flaherty stated that he is “prepared to consider a change to the proposed rules providing explicitly that a lawyer … will not be required to report any specific item of information that the lawyer believes, on reasonable grounds, is subject to solicitor-client privilege.”
