Mr. Chair, I thank the minister for speaking tonight. I certainly know she is very sincere in her comments.
The consulting has been going on for two years. Several times I asked the Minister of Industry about changes to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act or the pension issue. He would often tell me to wait, that it was coming, or that he would do something. I also asked what could be done on the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act when it came to Nortel and so on.
I would be interested to hear from the Minister of Labour just what influence she has exercised with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Industry to try to deal with the terrible situation that Nortel and AbitibiBowater have found themselves in.
Second, when we talk about the RRIFs, that is good. It is certainly a recommendation in the white paper that I put out. However, it is still only seniors who are withdrawing.
The fact is, many of them have not recovered from the impact of the income trust debacle when it was promised there would be no changes. However, immediately upon being elected, income trusts were one of the first things where the rug was pulled out from under them. We can talk about the good things that the government has done such as income splitting and a few other things, and praise is due. However, income trusts have hit seniors immensely.
We have been waiting for two years now for some sort of comment back on pension reform. Clearly it takes working together with the provinces to make any of these things happen.
I would be very interested to know what she has done to attempt to get her government to do something about the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, or if not that, a stranded pension agency, or something that is going to help many of the people we are dealing with today.