I'll give you a concrete example. Let's say a business goes bankrupt with a $10-million deficit in pension fund obligations. Banks would be paid before workers, as would insurance companies, municipalities and school boards. If 500 people were already retired, that would mean they would lose up to 20% of their pension benefits, which is a lot to them.
Consider an 88-year-old retiree who receives a small annuity of $800 from her pension fund. If the company goes bankrupt, that retiree could lose $200 of her $800 annuity every month. That would be devastating to her. She can't get that money back, unlike banks. No Canadian bank, insurance company or municipality would be at risk of going bankrupt because it couldn't recover a missing $10 million from a pension fund.
Let's use the example of Mabe, an appliance company in Montreal that went under. The employees lost a big chunk of their pensions. It's not true that the city of Montreal would have gone bankrupt had it been paid after the pensioners or school boards.
What we are asking for is protection for those pensioners. They are often among the least fortunate in society, especially those who are older. They aren't able to start over and rejoin the workforce to earn a bit of money so they can make ends meet. As we see it, that protection is paramount.
The idea is not to hurt companies who file for protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. On the contrary, we want to contribute to their recovery. Banks, however, rake in $10 billion in profits every year. It makes no sense for banks, insurance companies, municipalities and school boards to be paid before pensioners. We are asking that pensioners be given higher priority on the list of creditors. We aren't saying that they should be first on the list, but they should be ahead of banks and big insurance companies.