Thank you for your question.
In fact, we did a thorough economic analysis based on the documents that were made available by the financial comptroller Ernst & Young at the time of the restructuring, in 2010. We were able to reconstruct the owner's financial strategy by getting hold of the annual reports, as well as reports produced by independent auditors.
We should have investigated further, but due to lack of resources and time, we were unable to pursue this avenue. However, we came to the conclusion that behind the exorbitant indebtedness of the Stadacona plant in Quebec City there was a corporate scheme. Given the maturity of the defined benefit plan for the plant's employees, given also that the bulk of the management costs and all the variable capital, i.e. the expenses associated with salaries and the pension plan related to this plant, were disproportionate in the eyes of the owner, there was a strategy of excessive indebtedness; this led the owner to place himself under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, the CCAA.
In our view, what emerges from this case is that, while the CCAA was originally intended to enable companies in real financial difficulty to get back on their feet, over time it has enabled some employers to develop stratagems.
There really should be thorough economic investigations. We know that the case of Sears Canada in Ontario pointed in the direction of improper payment of certain revenues to the company's shareholders at a time when it was known that the company was in financial difficulty. So we see that the argument in the CCAA that creditors must be protected from default or business risk does not hold up in a systematic way. We need to look at these cases. We have been seeing repeated restructurings for several years now, and we think the time has come to at least take stock of the restructuring cases and adjust the focus.
In our view, raising the level of protection for pension plans is a step in the right direction to take stock and improve pension protection.