Mr. Speaker, in committee all opposition parties pressed the government side to ensure that the superannuation benefits of federal employees transferred over to the public ports and not just port authorities would be protected. Instead, the government with Motion No. 19, as near as I can determine from what I have read, merely clarifies and solidifies the rights of government employees moving to port authorities but does nothing at all for employees moving into the public ports.
These employees, some with 10 or 15 years of service, will be left out in the cold. They have fallen through the cracks. Their pensions are not portable and the bill literally leaves them hung out to dry.
They are not great in numbers but nevertheless these are real people. Some consideration should have been given to them.
Motion No. 18 really has the same deficiency. It does not relate to people transferring into the public ports. However, as I read that motion, it is a bit over generous to employees transferring to port authorities. To some extent it negates the intent of commercialization which was to get the government out of the business of ports.
I think on one hand there are the employees of public ports who are not going to be cared for at all. On the other hand, with either Motion No. 18 or 19, fair enough, the port authority people are being looked after. Motion No. 18 looks after them so well that we will not support it. We will support Motion No. 19 but I am extremely disappointed that the government only did half the job.