Well, certainly the feedback with respect to the previous pension changes from the triennial review of the Canada Pension Plan changes has been positive. People want to have more flexibility with respect to when they retire and have access to Canada Pension Plan benefits. That's a consistent theme.
In the changes we announced today, we are enhancing protection for plan members, we are reducing funding volatility for defined benefit plans, we are making it easier for participants to negotiate changes to their pension arrangements, we are improving the framework for defined contribution plans and for negotiated contribution plans, and we are modernizing the rule for investments made by pension plans.
Let me give you one example of why this matters. The solvency workout procedures that we're putting forward today, for example, deal with a situation we had to deal with in practice with Air Canada earlier this year. I think there were five unions, and Air Canada was in a position such that it probably would not have been able to continue to function if the pension issues were not resolved. In an ad hoc way, I asked former Justice Farley of the Superior Court of Ontario, who had dealt with the Air Canada bankruptcy previously, to act as a mediator, and he did, with the five unions and the management of Air Canada. They were able to work out, along with representatives of the pensioners of Air Canada, a solvency arrangement so that Air Canada would have more time to top up the pension plan. That was successful; the airline has continued to operate.
We're going to institutionalize that process—or that's the plan—in the new proposed changes, so that we hopefully will see the process followed when pension plans get into some difficulty and so that we don't have operating companies that could continue to operate were it not for the challenge they have in topping up their pension plans.
At the same time, this ought not to be done without the consent of the representatives of the workers, whether they're unionized or non-unionized, and the pensioners as well. We have that process built into the new proposals.