Madam Speaker, I will start by thanking my colleague from Manicouagan for his excellent question and its excellent link with POWA, the program for older worker adjustment.
Even if Bill C-55 provides a wage earner protection program, we do not yet know what will come of it. The minister has referred to precedents established in the United Kingdom and Australia. It will be necessary to go there and see for ourselves how it works in practice here, eventually, and whether workers do indeed get what they are owed.
There will still, however, be the problem of one segment of the working population: the ones aged 50 or 55 whose employer goes bankrupt and who will never get back what is owing to them and will never be able to bridge the time between their last pay cheque and their first pension cheque. These older workers need help. Some need retraining, but most need financial assistance to make it until pension age.
The connection made by my colleague from Manicouagan is a very interesting one. If it were possible, that could be part of Bill C-55. For the moment, this good bill needs complementing with POWA for older workers.