Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm moving the motion now only because it's the last meeting before summer. Members who have been following this issue may know that it's effective in September.
These workers were essentially put on course to be kicked out of the public service pension plan by the Harper government. It was a three-year term, and that's coming to fruition, as it were, if you'll excuse the word, in September. I know the government has been talking with the folks who represent these workers ever since their election.
It came up at one of our committee meetings in November. In November, we had a commitment at the time to.... The question was, essentially, how much it would cost the government to keep these workers in the plan.
Under the new public-private model that's been adopted for ACL under the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories shell company, the private contractor is required to pay for a pension plan. For the last three years, for the workers who have been there—not the new workers, but the existing workers—the private contractor, as part of their contract, has been making the employer contributions on behalf of those employees to the plan. There's no cost to government in terms of the contribution; however, there are some administrative costs. That's what the folks representing those workers and the workers themselves have been wanting to know: what exactly does the government estimate, based on the last three years of the government doing that, would be the cost to keep those workers in the plan?
We did have a commitment going back a while ago to get that information; we just haven't got it yet. Before the end of the summer I was hoping that the committee might assist those workers by essentially reiterating our request for that information to the President of the Treasury Board so they have it with at least a bit of time to consider what that information means for them and to come back to government with a proposal. I know they've been talking to the PMO and Treasury Board, and they've been talking to Minister Carr's office because Minister Carr is ultimately responsible for CNL. They'd like that information to be able to see if they can work out some kind of deal so these guys can keep their pensions.
That's really the purpose of the motion.
I won't take any more of the committee's time.