The FTQ, to which we are affiliated, made a submission containing a series of recommendations. It includes several measures, such as contribution holidays. We suggest a pension insurance system that would oblige all pension plans to make contributions, so that in the event of bankruptcy, it would still have funds to honour its obligations, similar to how insurance companies operate. This type of pension insurance is based on the same principle.
In the other recommendations, it is clear that we want to ensure that trustees and companies are responsible, and that pension plans are fully funded. There must be a series of guarantees.
We should not allow a retiree who has made payments their entire life to lose a portion of their retirement income. These payments must be insured, and this applies equally to those no longer working. In our industry, the one thing that has to be remembered is that, had we received financial assistance such as guaranteed loans to refinance company operations, we would not be in this situation.
A large part of AbitibiBowater would have been able to refinance its debt were it not carrying a $4-billion debt; when the market drops, factories are closed, people are forced into retirement and others are relocated. There are not too many problems. It is only when it becomes impossible to refinance a major debt during a financial crisis that a company must resort to bankruptcy protection. Otherwise, we would be able to honour our obligations towards our retirees. There are 8,900 retirees from AbitibiBowater in Quebec and another 1,000 from Smurfit-Stone. This is huge; it represents one-third of our workforce.