Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have a chance to summarize some of what I have heard.
I would remind all those who spoke on this bill that 10,055 companies went bankrupt last year. That figure does not include another 10,000 companies that made application for some form of protection under the Bankruptcy Act. Therefore it is an urgent problem. Many workers are involved. There is a great difference between the liabilities of the company and the assets of the company, and usually a very great shortfall.
What we heard from the Liberals is that they wanted more examination and to revisit the issue. I would argue we have visited the issue a total of seven times in the last twenty years and we have been unable to come to any kind of resolve to give satisfaction to the working people of the country.
My colleague from Acadie—Bathurst pointed out that the province of Ontario in 1991 did not want to wait any longer. It put in place a wage protection scheme. Unfortunately it lasted only until Mike Harris and the Tories came in and took it out. At least somebody did not let the obstacles and the barriers get in the way of doing what was right for working people.
The Alliance Party, the great grassroots party, seems to be demonstrating some kind of a wilful blindness to what the real issues are. It seems to have grasped the idea to be able to make the debate that we should somehow privatize the profits in a business and then socialize the losses in a business. In other words, when a bankruptcy comes along we should all share in the pain and all of us should bear the burden of the failure of the company.
As I pointed out in my earlier speech, there is an imbalance in the relationship between the employer and the employee. The employer who assumed a loss also assumed all the profits when the company was going well. The employee is the one who stands to lose. I do not think it is an equal weigh scale as the Alliance tries to portray.
I thank the members from the Bloc Quebecois for at least having the courtesy to read the bill and to understand the arguments we were making, and of course their ultimate position that they believe that workers should stand first in line in terms of creditors in the event of a bankruptcy.
The Tories seemed to miss the boat all together too, although it is always a pleasure to see a creative wordsmith speak on both sides of the issue and right down the middle all at the same time. It is a real gift. What they fail to see is the type of compensation package they contemplated, like the Australian model, creates a moral hazard. That is the way it is put in our research papers. The moral hazard is that companies knowing full well there is a fall back position for the employees may be less likely to do the honourable thing and make sure the employees are paid up to date. In other words, it is building in an exit ramp, or an excuse or an avenue for the employer to try to take advantage.
I will summarize my arguments in a few words. The employees usually do not have the same opportunity to protect themselves when the employer is in a precarious financial situation. They do not have nearly the opportunities that the employer does. Unlike the secured creditors, like the financial institutions, the employees do not have the same ability or the opportunity to either read the risks of being involved with the employer or to absorb the loss that an employer or financial institution has. Nor do they have the ability to pass on that loss to future customers. In other words, there is an imbalance there as well. Employees need the protection of legislation. The banks, the financial institutions and the other creditors know the risk when they were going in and they have a better ability to deal with any losses that might come out of it. Therefore they do not need the protection of the House.
We should be advocating for the employees not the financial institutions in the House of Commons. I wish we could have convinced the other members on this issue. I look forward to debating it again some day in the House.