I just want to make the comment that we're very concerned about the Nortel Canada estate. Nortel's bankruptcy process is being driven out of New York, by the unsecured creditors committee. It's entirely possible that the Canadian estate will not have significant funds in it. My estimates are that approximately $1 billion out of the $6 billion could end here.
As you can see, there's $1.1 billion just in the pension fund alone, not including the medical costs. That's why I've come today, to make sure you're aware that the long-term disabled, who have only 17% funding in their health and welfare trust, if they're pari passu with the pensioners, are going to end up going to the poverty line.
So that's the basis upon which we say, in the Nortel case and in the general case, the long-term disabled need to have a preferred plus status. There will not likely be enough money in the Canadian estate to pay all of the pensioners, the terminated workers, and the long-term disabled. If the long-term disabled need to take an average of the small amount that could come to the Canadian estate, these people will all go to the poverty line. On that basis, we're asking that they be lifted one notch higher.
It's because of the health and welfare trusts that are not funded, not regulated relative to the pension funds, that as a matter of policy and because of their illnesses and peace of mind they need to be slightly higher.