Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert for this opportunity to make some clarifications. This is a matter of concern to her because employment is her speciality. Every time she has a chance to support measures relating to human resources and skills development, she does so with alacrity and pertinence, not to mention great vigour. I thank her for this.
As to whether it would be appropriate to raise this issue here, I think we would need to see whether it is allowed by the Standing Orders. If it is, I think we should, because time is moving on. Today we are trying to remedy the shortcoming relating to wage protection when there is a bankruptcy. Two years have been wasted. In the meantime, how many companies have closed on account of bankruptcy and so on? People have lost all that was owing to them in the way of earnings and separation allowances, and often pension funds as well. This is a critical situation and one that needs to be laid at the feet of the Liberals because it was their responsibility to do something. They could not say they were unaware. There was an NDP motion on this, and much discussion. There was even a vote on the matter because of that NDP motion. The Liberals voted against that motion. This is a critical situation. The same thing goes for POWA.
I appreciate my colleague's question, because if this is not done in connection with this bill, the government will have to explain why it does not take the initiative, when it is well aware of the consequences on workers and their families. When we talk of poor families in bad housing, having trouble to feed themselves, measures like these are to blame.