Mr. Speaker, last evening I received a communication from a Nortel retiree who was very distraught with the circumstances she found herself in now, being disabled and being unable to collect benefits.
The petitioners, representing Nortel retirees and other beneficiaries, call upon Parliament to amend the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to protect the rights of Canadian employees and to ensure that employees laid off by a company who receive a pension or long-term disability benefits during bankruptcy proceedings obtain preferred creditor status over other unsecured creditors. They also ask that the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act be amended to ensure employee-related claims are paid from the proceeds of Canadian asset sales before funds are permitted to leave the country.
I believe this is a very important issue for us to consider and I hope the government will heed their petition.