Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
My name is Jacques Beaudoin and I am president of the Fédération des associations de retraités du Québec.
First I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Finance for giving me the opportunity to present the Federation's views on Bill C-290, which we support.
I also wish to say that we greatly appreciate the fact that the House of Commons is allowing retirees and their associations to express their concerns to the committee and speak to issues related to their retirement benefits.
Our Federation comprises about 15 member associations, representing approximately 25,000 retirees who are covered by private pension plans. Entirely run by volunteers, these associations mainly aim to promote and defend their members' rights under their former employers' pension plans.
Our organization, the FARQ, is making representations to the Government of Quebec and the Government of Canada, as well as to those agencies responsible for enforcing the various laws affecting pension plans. Overall, we are coordinating our action with Quebec's major associations of seniors and retirees, including the Quebec Federation of Senior Citizens, which boasts 260,000 members.
We are currently making representations in relation to a number of different demands by retirees, which are summarized in the brief that I forwarded and which has been provided to you. Several of our affiliated associations could certainly be considered serious cases—pardon the expression—because their retiree members have had their pensions slashed in recent years after their former employers went bankrupt.
I refer here to retirees from the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos—which you are familiar with—from Atlas Stainless Steel, in Sorel-Tracy, and the Davie Shipyards in Lévis-Lauzon, as well as from AbitibiBowater, who are very worried right now that they could suffer the same fate.
It is these retirees across Quebec who have experienced similar situations, with all the social trauma that this entails for themselves, their family and their region. As was explained earlier, these retirees have seen their retirement benefits cut by as much as 50% in some cases. And yet these now-retired workers had paid into their pension plan and made the mandatory contributions asked of them—or rather, imposed on them—in order to be eligible for a full pension.
Furthermore, when they retired, they received a contract from their employer, as provided for by the legislation, promising a full pension, not one cut by one quarter or one half.
So why, after the fact, are these retirees the principal victims of their former employer's bankruptcy, something over which they had no control and for which they are not responsible? When an employer goes bankrupt and pensions are cut, it is too late for retired employees to start over again or improve their situation because of their age.
Are our laws not adequate, not properly enforced or not complied with? Or are both factors at play in our tolerance of such situations? We honestly think that there is a serious problem of unfairness and that you, as parliamentarians, can rectify it. We are therefore appealing to you to do so.
Bill C-290 is on the right track. Employers and active workers are well organized and able to defend their rights. That is not the case for retirees in terms of their pension plan. Do we need to tell you that retirees urgently require protection from governments and parliamentarians, as well as adequate legislation?
FARQ supports Bill C-290, which would provide a refundable tax credit to retirees who have fallen victim to pension cuts following their former employer's bankruptcy.
In closing, FARQ hopes that the Standing Committee on Finance will recommend that the House of Commons unanimously pass this bill.
Thank you very much for your attention.