Thank you, Mr. Garneau.
We understand that there are concerns among the companies, investors, actuaries and pension plan managers, and a proposal that we submitted last year could address those concerns.
In fact, in the middle of the crisis last year, 70% of our members were working for a company that was under the protection of the Bankruptcy Act or the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.
Our proposal provides for the creation of a national investment and pension fund, somewhat similar to what there is in Quebec, and we discovered in the meantime that the two concepts were very similar. The federal government could establish a fund without investing any money. The fund would be administered by the Canada Pension Plan, separate from the plan itself, and we could have a guarantee that the assets of the companies that have put themselves under creditor protection could be invested in it in order to grow. At that point, those funds would no longer be subject to a plan termination and could be managed less conservatively than the funds of insurers. So we're talking about a mix of stocks and bonds that would permit a higher return.
That would subsequently assist the companies because, when restructuring, they would ultimately no longer need to calculate their shortfall on a solvency basis. They could consider the shortfall on an ongoing basis since we would have a guarantee that the plans would not be terminated.
I know it takes quite a long time to explain, but I have inserted the explanation in your documents. This kind of fund would help allay the companies' fears about this and it should be an essential partner for Bill C-501, which is still absolutely essential in protecting workers and retirees.