Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak to this committee about Bill C‑228. I will confine my remarks only to the insolvency law aspects of the bill. My colleagues from Finance Canada we speak to the provisions of the bill affecting federal pension legislation. Let

Finance committee  I'm happy to start and then turn to my colleagues from Finance, who will have more precision. One important thing to note is that while the Pension Benefits Standards Act—as my colleague from Finance noted—applies to federally regulated pensions, the insolvency system applies to

Finance committee  I obviously can't speak to the specific process that you might want to adopt as a committee, but I would say that the issues related to the structuring context and insolvency law in Canada continue to evolve and have evolved as a function of additional changes that have been made

Finance committee  I'm happy to confirm that the nature of insolvency is that it is a federal responsibility. The rules that provide for the orderly insolvency process cover all creditors and debts of companies in the BIA and CCAA process. This would mean that pensions, regardless of their regulato

Finance committee  I will start, and then my colleague from Finance can weigh in. As I already noted, pension solvency requirements vary enormously province by province. They set the degree to which a company is actually required to be holding assets in trust for the purposes of its pensioners.

Finance committee  I raised two different sets of issues and I'll speak to them. One set of issues is about how it's drafted. Right now, regardless of whether it's three years or five years, it's set on the basis of a calendar year, as opposed to tying it back to the insolvency date. Right now, up

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. From 2009 to 2022, there were approximately 10 cases where the pension had been reduced due to insolvency. These are under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act proceedings. Bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings would be a different manner. I can

Finance committee  The coming into force transition clause that's more typical to insolvency law affects only proceedings that start after the coming into force date, to ensure that rules don't change in the middle of an ongoing insolvency proceeding. What the current private member's bill does is

Finance committee  What I'm indicating is that traditional transition clauses in insolvency policy would say that any insolvency proceedings that go from this point forward would be subject to these rules. From the coming into force date, any new proceeding would be subject to the provisions as the

Finance committee  If that company enters into either a restructuring or an insolvency policy, regardless of whether it's federally or provincially regulated, it will be subject to the rules of Bill C-228. It all comes from insolvency.

Finance committee  I don't have those that would be under the BIA, but, by and large, most of them would have occurred under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. From 2009 to 2022, there were 10 restructurings that resulted in pension reductions.

Finance committee  It was roughly 50,000 pensioners.

Finance committee  Yes, go ahead.

Finance committee  It would be conjecture on my part. I think a consideration for the committee is, on the one hand, a mandatory requirement from creditors to ensure they still get paid. The pressure that comes from that is one kind of intended outcome of the bill. The other is that the company n

Industry committee  The government's telecommunications policy is guided by three core policy objectives, with competition as the underlying principle. Those are quality, coverage and price. In particular, the belief is that Canadians should benefit from services that are fast enough to support mode