Madam Speaker, I would like to fully understand Bill C-55. I want to be sure that the workers in a company are well protected.
There are workers who have been employed by a company and have contributed to it for years. They made a choice during collective agreement negotiations to earn a bit less in wages in order to put a bit more money into their retirement fund. These people made a choice in the present but for the future. I would like to be sure that Bill C-55 does a good job of protecting these workers.
If someone invests in a pension fund for years, it should be exclusive to that person. It is obvious that if the employees' and employer's retirement fund is in the form of a consolidated fund within the company, if the company should ever go bankrupt, everything goes down.
It should be said that the government itself is hardly setting an example with employment insurance. It appropriates the insurance paid by employees and employers and puts the surpluses into a consolidated fund that it uses for its own purposes and to make itself look like a good manager. It is not setting a good example for companies.
Companies should establish a separate fund, reserved and untouchable, into which the employees' contributions to their pension fund would be paid as well as the employer's.
We never hope that a company goes bankrupt, but unfortunately this happens sometimes when assets and liabilities get out of line and the company finds itself with its back to the wall. It has no other choice than to declare bankruptcy. When this happens, the retirement fund that employees have negotiated should be untouchable. The employer's and employees' contributions should be fully reimbursed immediately when a company goes bankrupt. Employees can then reinvest this money in a particular fund of their choosing, for example an RRSP.
The current situation is unacceptable, in my view, for employees who made a choice when their collective agreements were being negotiated to sacrifice some of their wages in order to put the money into their retirement fund. It is unfortunate that when a company goes bankrupt, people can lose everything and find themselves on the verge of bankruptcy, just like the company.
Does the member agree with me that Bill C-55 should force companies to refrain from meddling with retirement funds and ensure that these funds are reserved exclusively for the people who contributed to them?