Mr. Speaker, after a lengthy break, I am glad to be back to present this particular petition, and it is an honour for me to do so. It is on behalf of several pensioners and their families in the Exploits Valley area of Newfoundland and Labrador and it is signed by residents of the communities as well.
It calls upon the Minister of Finance to allow the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union and AbitibiBowater, the former mill in Grand Falls—Windsor, to transfer the pension assets to a trust, which would be designed to administer pension fund money and to use realistic interest rates with a view to ultimately protect the full value of the pension.
As the pensioners in the area have lost in value around 30% of their pensions, they are obviously concerned about this. They want the government to take action. They want it to help out in this particular situation with the union and the company.
I would like to personally thank the committee members for doing so much work on this, as more petitions are yet to come. They include: John Hamilton; David Grimes, the chair; Harry Parsons; Junior Downey; Phillip Walsh; Chuck Hopful; Gary Healey; Vic Mercer; George Clooney; Felix Gambin; Kevin Barry; Wade Hollettt; and Winston Ellsworth.