Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be in the House tonight to conclude debate on my bill, Bill C-253, an act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act with respect to pension plans and group insurance plans. The bill has a long name, but it is actually quite simple. I will move on to its principle.
What I want to do is protect the deferred salaries of employees, of pensioners. In other words, when people contribute to a defined benefit pension fund, they expect that when they retire, they will be able to get or have what they have earned over a lifetime of work and labour. This is a very simple principle. We do not want a company or multinational to walk away with a large chunk of the fund because it has underfunded the pension plan. In very simple terms, that is what Bill C-253 is seeking to address.
Of course, we have been told, in many different ways, about all the problems we might face with a bill like this one. While the principle is simple, the devil is obviously in the details, but I would like to remind the House that our primary goal is to work for the people.
During the debate, I heard many comments about how, in the end, the government did good things in its budget. Let us hope that is the case, but we cannot rely only on hope. What I am putting forward here is not a one-time budget measure. Rather, it is intended to be a permanent legislative measure, since we are legislators. I am therefore proposing a solution.
I would like to thank the many people who worked with me over the past few years. Things take a long time in the House. We have been working on this bill for five years with the help of many people, including workers, pensioners and unions in Quebec and the rest of Canada.
I have an extraordinary team who has believed in this bill since we began our work for one good and simple reason, and that is the fact that the people from my riding of Manicouagan asked for this bill. That is the standard by which we should always measure the work that we do here. The people of Manicouagan had a need for this bill and they made it clear even before I was elected. They made that need clear during the election campaign, when I met with them, so many people contributed to the development of this bill.
I would therefore like to thank my entire team, all the organizations, local agencies, unions, pensioners and many others. I would also like to thank all of my Bloc Québécois colleagues, who also believe in this bill and who worked on it with me. I obviously want to thank my colleagues in the House. I believe I heard that many of them will be at least voting in favour of the principle of Bill C-253 so that it can be examined in committee.
I would now like to say a few words to each party.
The official opposition indicated it would support the bill, saying that it could be improved upon—which is true of anything, in my opinion. I hope the opposition will support the bill and we can discuss it. As several colleagues have already said, we have been talking about it for many years, but no action has been taken.
With all due respect to the government, the fact that it is increasing old age security in no way responds to what I am asking here on behalf of my constituents and other Canadians. That might be a nice infomercial for the government, but it has nothing to do with what I am calling for.
The official opposition has said it will vote in favour of referring this to committee for study. At least some mental effort is being made.
As for the government, it will probably vote against it, even though I have heard several people applaud the solutions to the difficulty we are facing. Even at its own Liberal convention, several party members, including government members, tabled a resolution in favour of a bill like mine. I would expect the governing party to vote in favour of something called for by a majority of its members, possibly.
Furthermore, the bill presents a balanced position. We often hear fearmongering about how this is going to result in business closures, but no, this takes a balanced approach.
I will conclude with this example. When Cliffs Natural Resources went bankrupt, its main creditor was itself. It gave itself $400 million. That $400 million belonged to the pensioners in my riding. I would prefer that, with a bill like mine, this money be returned to the workers and pensioners, not to the multinationals that continue to turn a profit.