Finance committee  Mr. Flaherty.

Finance committee  I met the Prime Minister as part of Industry, but I have not spoken specifically with respect to Nortel.

Finance committee  There was the status of the company, the status of the industry—

Finance committee  —and also any potential areas of collaboration.

Finance committee  That certainly was one of the items. It was also discussing areas of more substantive systems. But those discussions did not end up in any concrete....

Finance committee  There was not any specific discussion of pensions or severance—

Finance committee  —in the discussion. Obviously, we discussed the impact on employees and the expected reductions if we were to file, but we did not have a specific discussion on severance.

Finance committee  I said that there was not a specific discussion on severance. There were discussions on the overall impact on employees.

Finance committee  No. We've had very active discussions with EDC, but we did not come to areas of direct assistance there.

Finance committee  Correct.

Finance committee  Absolutely--pensioners, current and former employees.

Finance committee  That's not really true. I'll comment on the first one. There is no one in the back of the line. Whether you're a supplier--

Finance committee  No, there are no secured creditors, sir. There is no one back.... There are the active, ongoing employees, there are consultants or parties that are serving the various stakeholders, but there are no secured creditors.

Finance committee  The short answer is yes. When you file for credit protection, that means you have many real liabilities, whether it is to a supplier, to an employee, to a bond holder. The unfortunate realization at that point in time is that you cannot fulfill all your obligations. That's why yo

Finance committee  The approach internally on continuing to fulfill obligations to existing employees in the retention plan, based on studies of companies all over the world, we thought was the absolute minimum requirement. Creditors, who have the same expectations as employees, and would like to o