Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, committee members, for agreeing to hear us.
You will not be surprised to hear that we support Bill C-501. We think the present system really works to the detriment of workers, as demonstrated by a number of examples from the great recession. I would like to talk to you about a specific example.
In some cases, we were able to salvage the situation. In the case of AbitibiBowater, for example, we were able to negotiate with the company to protect retirees' pensions. Of course, that required concessions on the part of workers, but pensions were protected during the major crisis, particularly as a result of the fact that it was possible to work with AbitibiBowater.
Fraser Papers is a much sadder story. A company, Brookfield Asset Management, owned a 70% interest in the business. It was one of the most viable forest companies. Fraser Papers was able to weather the crisis and to come out of it stronger than the rest of the industry.
And yet Brookfield Asset Management decided to place Fraser Papers under Bankruptcy Act protection. Under the restructuring plan that was adopted, a new company was created, the major shareholder in which was still Brookfield Asset Management, and it managed to secure repayment of the money that Fraser Papers owed it on paper and to repay secured creditors. Ultimately, what that meant for workers was that the Thurso plant shut down. Workers have yet to receive severance pay.
As for other retirees, their pay was cut by 30% to 35%, and all that was because Brookfield Asset Management had no remorse in shutting down a plant that was profitable and was doing better than other companies in order to secure its concessions under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. That was a flagrant abuse of the CCAA for specific purposes that ultimately hurt the workers.
In that sense, the CCAA is currently an obsolete tool, and we advocate passage of Bill C-501. With regard to the issue of investors—I know that has been the subject of extensive discussion and that you have heard from companies and restructuring experts who tell you that's impossible—and we have a proposal, which I won't have time to present to you, but I invite you to ask me questions on the subject. I will be pleased to answer them.