Industry committee  Good morning, members of the committee. First of all, I would like to thank you for making the amendment as outlined in the reference document submitted by Mr. Rafferty. We are pleased to see the inclusion of the unfunded liability or solvency deficiency in the amendment to Bill C-501.

Industry committee  I just have two points I'd like to make. First of all, Mr. Laver talked about the issue of all of the legislation being put in place to change pension laws. That is all federal. That's 7% of the pension funds in Canada. It doesn't affect us one little bit. It doesn't affect one private pension plan.

Industry committee  I've been in discussion with Minister Baird, Minister O'Connor, and I'm trying to get a meeting with Minister Clement. It hasn't happened yet, but it's on the books. We have been talking to them and the government ministers have indicated to us that something is in the works. That something has not been defined.

Industry committee  They were actually overfunded in the late 1990s, as well as early 2000. They had 105% of that fund.

Industry committee  Yes, I do believe so. I know that the federal legislation has been changed to reflect that. It's been proposed that it goes up to 125% without penalties. I am sure the fact that it was only at a 10% level discouraged people from putting any more in it.

Industry committee  They had $2.5 billion in cash when they declared bankruptcy, or went into CCAA. They may not have been able to put all of that into a pension fund, but certainly if there was a priority to the pension fund, at least a portion of that should have gone into it. One of the things I do want to mention, just to make it clear, we talk about the funded ratio.