It certainly is an impediment to have that ceiling, and it would be my contention that there shouldn't be a ceiling. There are other ways of doing this, one of which would be when there is a surplus to have it amortized as insolvency is amortized. In other words, have a plan when it goes up, and have a plan for it to go down. If you have an insolvency problem, you do the same thing. You bring it back to solvency.
Should it be specific? Do you need five years or seven years or whatever? I'm not sure of that. I'd leave that to the experts. But I think we've been fussing with this. It seems to be a limitation. It is a consequence now of some of the problems we have, because that alnd contribution holidays have put many of these sponsors into the predicament they're in right now. Some of them, I suspect, use this as an excuse. I've heard from actuaries, not this one, who have said they can produce just about any number you want, that the limit doesn't mean much, but then maybe we should look into that proposition.
I'm suggesting there shouldn't be an impediment, because what we're doing is penalizing our own system. So I agree with you. And by the way, I do agree that your consultation has been very productive. It has got the attention of the media. And I can tell you that despite some of the corporate witnesses you've had, pensioners are much better informed today because we're having these discussions, and I think that's imperative.
I'd like to thank Ms. Thompson from Air Canada. We agree with her proposition that this blanket ruling.... This is one of the problems when you're not prepared. I know the intention was to give relief to the pension plan, but this temporary measure was a sledgehammer when we needed a scalpel. Certainly Air Canada needed some special consideration, but when you look at the super group of seven, some of them--and one of them I'm very familiar with--at the same time they put in their annual reports that they were going to adopt a ten-year plan with a letter of credit, announced an increase in dividends. They showed the largest liquidity they ever had of $3 billion. They bought back $1 billion worth of shares and they made a major acquisition of a retail chain across the country. And I ask you, wouldn't that money have been better placed in the pension fund?