Madam Speaker, in discussion of the marine act at the standing committee, it was acknowledged that there had been lengthy discussions in the previous Parliament and it was also understood that the affected groups were, overall, satisfied with the changes that had been made to the marine act.
In recognition of that and of their request that we not rehash the whole process and that we try to move the bill along, I believe the standing committee worked in that effort. The major area that came up for discussion, as we are being made aware, was to ensure that employees of Canada Ports continued with some kind of superannuation or pension benefits comparable to what they had.
I had a real treat of being in Churchill the day after the signing took place and the port was turned over to another company. I realized that Canada Ports really had not given two cents worth of its time with regard to its employees. There had been little or no discussion with the employees. The employees were given forms with which they were basically signing away their rights to any file or complaints they had under the human rights code. It was actually very disgraceful to see that approach taken with the employees.
What also happened with those employees is there was not a comparable plan in place.
I have a letter that was given to one of those employees with regard to the three months pay for the perceived difference in superannuation and RRSPs. The letter states that the money that person would have received, in that perceived difference, the money that person would get, would be put toward that person's earnings. Therefore, that person would be denied a length of time in which to claim unemployment. That person could not even take that money and invest it in something that would be there for retirement. It then went toward insurable earnings. So that person did not have even that difference of money that was recognized. That person would not even be allowed to use it for retirement.