Further on the LTD issue, when speaking to some people, they've said it would take $200 million to buy annuities to cover the losses for the 400 people at Nortel. I think we heard earlier today they had $2.4 billion in cash assets at the time. It's very clear that companies are getting rewarded for dumping their employees. These same executives have decided not to pay severance. They've decided to proceed with the dismantling of the company and take bonuses to boot. It is outrageous.
I want to thank you for raising Bill C-501 in your commentary. It's a bill the NDP has put before the House. I had put forward Bill C-476 before to address the Nortel situation, but I was too far down in precedence. John Rafferty, the member for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, put forward this bill. Hopefully, we can get the support of other members, because it will be coming forward in this session and will give us an opportunity to deal with that.
I've written myself too many notes in the middle of all this stuff, because it's a little on the complex side.
There's one thing that people did not touch on today. I understand we have our public system. People make some private investments. We have the “three-legged stool”, which was talked about, and RRSPs, but 63% of working Canadians today have no savings and no pensions. The doubling of the CPP strikes me as a foundation for going forward. Nobody is suggesting it's a replacement for what we have or a replacement for the private sector. There's still room. When you see a number that big, I again think we have to address the situation.
I'd like to hear any commentary you'd like to make along those lines.