Industry committee  If you're looking around the world, yes, there are many different examples, but we start to get into an academic exercise of looking at which country is most similar to Canada. Many countries do have forms of insurance guarantee. Examples include the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and

Industry committee  I'm saying this could have been done a lot more easily, perhaps, at the formation, but changing the rules halfway through.... Investors have put their money forward. They have loaned to a company. That company has promised to pay them back. If all of a sudden we change the rules

Industry committee  I don't want to get too technical in talking about basis points and all the rest, but let me give you an analogy. A high-investment-grade, stable company will still have access to capital, but those companies that are not investment grade, or perhaps those ones that are on the

Industry committee  To start, I'll underscore the importance of the bond market and how big it is. You used the example of Bell Canada. If my memory serves me correctly, they have about $12 billion of unsecured bonds outstanding. These people would rank equally with pensioners. They have zero secu

Industry committee  They can't do it easily. On Tuesday I think there was a lot of focus on a product called CDS, or credit default swaps. They provide a way for bondholders to insure themselves against loss. The big focus was on Nortel. The problem is that CDS doesn't exist in Canada. These swaps

Industry committee  My understanding is that under some of the proposals made as part of the budget this year, a company that enters a state of bankruptcy or CCAA would be forced to immediately fund that pension deficit over an accelerated timeline. If so, that would mean that any remaining deficit

Industry committee  Thanks very much. If pension liabilities are moved above other creditors in a company, we believe their rating agencies and investors stand to lose billions of dollars. It would increase the borrowing cost for companies and reduce their access to raising funding for investment.