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The consultation paper has a raft of proposals but the one that will raise most of the money is the imposition of higher taxes on small-business profits that are invested passively — in bonds, stocks or real estate — inside a private company.

The problem the government is going to face is that many, many small businesses are owned by people who consider themselves middle class — and they are not thrilled at the prospect of hefty tax hikes.

In a letter to Carolyn Bennett, the minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, Chan said she has spent a large part of her career caring for patients affected by the legacy of residential schools. “I am now indignant at being painted as a tax cheat,” she wrote.

“I have patients who are living in the most severe consequences of this legacy, including post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions, poverty, homelessness, violence, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and other mental health diagnoses such as anxiety and depressive disorders…. I do not feel it is in the spirit of reconciliation to demoralize those who are doing the tough work on the ground.”

In an interview with the National Post, Chan, a mother of two, said she pays herself a salary to cover personal costs and saves up to $60,000 a year in her corporation for her retirement.

“I still pay plenty of taxes. When I take it out of the corporation, I will pay 50-per-cent tax on it.”

She said she didn’t start earning a full salary until she was 30, and money she had invested passively had to cover her two maternity leaves and time off to look after elderly parents.