Madam Speaker, further to discussion with Canada Ports employees, all the opposition parties and even some Liberal members recognized the real need to ensure employee benefits and pensions were continued. We are going through a major change here. I hope this is not something that will happen every day or every decade where employees who work for the Government of Canada are being told their jobs will no longer be there, that they are due to retire in five years and will not have the income or pension benefits they have planned for retirement.
It was hoped that the government would come up with a clause that would recognize this is a major change and that employees would be given the opportunity to continue with those same benefits. That is not to say that new employees may have had something different. Those employees who had planned their retirement based on that plan should have had the opportunity to continue.
This situation will not affect only Canada Ports. It is coming up in Atomic Energy Canada as those types of corporations are turned over. The issue will keep coming back. I suggest that we all look at the possibility of ensuring there is something for those employees so they are not five years to retirement without the funds they thought were available.
I will be supporting Motion No. 18 because I believe it is more encompassing. I put that motion forward at committee and I thank the hon. member for Beauport—Montmorency—Orléans resubmitting it.