I'm glad, first of all, that you're concerned about the plight of defined benefit plans. To me, to resolve the Nortel situation and other situations, government should introduce measures to encourage plan sponsors to better fund their pension plans. The Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and many other players, have suggested special funds to achieve this goal. For example, if plan sponsors would fund their pension plans conservatively--no pun intended--they would have some sort of guarantee that if those excess contributions were no longer required, they would have access to them.
On November 23rd, 2010. See this statement in context.