Hon. Hassan Yussuff moved second reading of Bill C-224, An Act to establish a national framework for the prevention and treatment of cancers linked to firefighting.

He said: Honourable senators, I will not be speaking today; my good friend Senator Wells, the critic of the bill, will be speaking.

Hon. Hassan Yussuff: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-228, the pension protection act.

This is a day that many pensioners, advocates, workers and union activists have worked tirelessly and selflessly for decades to make a reality. Today is about them and their efforts in achieving something historic for workers and pensioners.

Colleagues, you can play an integral role in writing an end to this story by supporting this legislation today without amendment.

When people ask me what Bill C-228 is about, my answer is simple: It is about fairness, respect for workers’ contributions and a commitment to their employers and about the right for all of us to enjoy a dignified retirement.

Senators, I would like to first recognize and thank Senator Wells for sponsoring the bill. He is a great colleague to work with. I want to also thank my colleagues on the Senate Banking Committee for their incredible work, Senator Wallin for chairing that committee and all members of the committee for the very important work we did in bringing the bill back to the Senate.

I believe the committee members understand the inherent injustice that pensioners across this country have endured because of our current bankruptcy laws. I know that although this might not be a perfect solution, it is the best solution available to us right now to protect the retirement futures of workers and pensioners.

Colleagues, the critics of the bill base their arguments in the potential unintended consequences should it become law. They say the bill might make it harder to access capital, it may increase the borrowing costs or it could lead to fewer defined benefit plans — could, may or might. Those are the words that have little value compared to the certainties of what current bankruptcy laws have cost workers and pensioners whose companies have gone bankrupt with a pension deficit.

Our current laws place those workers’ dignity and respect for their lifetimes of work at the back of the line.

Colleagues, it is those known inherent and harmful consequences of our bankruptcy laws that I ask you to fix for the benefit of workers who, in good faith with their employer, agreed to deferred wages today for a more secure retirement tomorrow.

Senators might ask what makes a defined benefit plan so special that it deserves a super-priority in bankruptcy if there is a deficit. It depends upon how much you value the trust and importance of keeping a promise when it comes to a company’s most important assets: its workers. Employer-sponsored defined benefit plans are part of the collective bargaining and employment agreement process. They are negotiated and agreed to in the same way as wages.

Workers will often agree to lower their wages today, preferring that the money goes into a pension plan to provide them with a more secured retirement tomorrow — in essence, a deferred wage. This negotiated agreement is based upon a promise by their employer to make the necessary contributions to their employees’ pension plan and the trust by those employees in the employer to do so.

Workers’ retirement futures are premised on the promise being kept and the trust being respected. For most employer-sponsored pension plans, the promise is kept, and the trust is proven to be well placed; however, for some plans, the employer has broken their promise and betrayed a trust that was placed in them. We know their names: Nortel, Sears, Eaton’s, Massey Ferguson, Cliffs Natural Resources and many more. The consequences of this can be devastating for the pensioners and their families, who work a lifetime on the belief that the promise will be kept, and the trust respected.

I want to take a moment to talk about what it means for pensioners when the promise is broken and the trust is shattered by sharing some of the stories of pensioners who have been affected by the unintended consequences of our current bankruptcy law.

Ron, Audrey and Attilio are 3 of over 1,600 former Sears employees who had to deal with the reality that their pension would be cut by almost 15%. Here are excerpts from the Sears Canada Retiree Group’s submission on this bill. Ron Husk from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, who worked for Sears for 35 years, said, “It’s terrible. I stayed awake at night thinking about it and I don’t know what to do.”

That is what the 77-year-old former appliance salesman said. Ron had to return to work to supplement the loss in his pension benefit.

Audrey of Beaver Dam, New Brunswick, worked for 50 years for Sears. She stayed until the last day the store was open. She just could not believe that the pension she had paid into and that was promised to her for her lifetime of work could now drop by 20%. “It is just so unfair,” she said.

Attilio from Alberta had to consider returning to work in sales to make up for the lost income. That was something he was not looking forward to doing. “Who the hell’s going to hire a 73-year-old guy?” he said. “I can only stay on my feet for so many hours. I have arthritis.” Attilio worked for Sears for 44 years.

From the United Steelworkers’ brief that spoke about the 1,700 pensioners at Cliffs Natural Resources that went bankrupt in 2015: for Rose and Aurelien, Cliffs’ bankruptcy meant a loss of $400 a month. “At our age, we can’t say that we’re going back to work. We have to live with what we have left,” they explained.

White Birch Paper’s Stadacona pensioners faced a 47% cut to their pension in December 2012. In the end, after making some gains, they must live for the rest of their lives with a 30% reduction or cut to their pension. All of them were affected in some way — health, family, recreation, et cetera. Many must now live below the poverty line. Some are going back to work at the age of 70 or older, if they are healthy enough to do so.

Honourable senators, this bill is about ensuring there will be no other pensioners who will have to suffer the same fate as the pensioners of the past bankruptcies. Commercial creditors like banks and financial institutions are sophisticated lenders who can take steps to protect their investments against the risks of default. They can scrutinize their loans, transferring risk to the investor. They can expect companies to fully fund their pensions, benefit plans and prudently manage the risk. They can also require increased disclosure about the funded status of their pension plan.

Pensioners, however, are unable to protect their pension and benefits against the risk of default. They don’t have multiple private pension plans and savings to make up the loss, and they have no power over their former employer to keep their pension fully funded.

I would like to return to the issue I mentioned earlier of unintended consequences, something we heard critics talk about often and, in particular, how this bill may affect a company’s ability to access capital. Honourable senators, I would argue this issue is not whether a company may not have access to capital. This issue is about the consequences of the financial choices a company makes when there is a pension fund deficit. The only unintended consequence of this bill is that the financial choices a company makes will now include, of course, pensioners’ interests, something the current bankruptcy laws have purposely intended not to consider. I believe, like many, that by changing the rules, companies will change their behaviour.

Do I believe that this change in behaviour will be encouraged by lenders who will be more vigilant in ensuring companies they lend to have a healthy pension plan? Yes, I do. Will that mean companies would not be able to pay a dividend or purchase shares back before their deficit is addressed? Very likely.

Honourable senators, don’t you think that this would be a good outcome if it means pensioners would be less likely to lose a significant portion of their retirement future?

Before I conclude, I want to thank and recognize, of course, the many people who have made today possible. First, I want to start with the parliamentarians who began proposing private members’ bills and public bills going back over 15 years. Two of them were right here in this chamber in the past. Our current speaker, of course, is one of those people, and Senator Art Eggleton is one of those people who retired from the Senate. Their efforts made the path easier for MP Marilyn Gladu, working with all parties in the other place, to achieve this unanimous support for this bill.

I also want to recognize the work of labour groups such as Unifor, United Steelworkers and the Canadian Labour Congress, who never let the issue die on behalf of their members and pensioners.

I would also like to thank the pensioners who have taken the time to call, email and write letters not just to me, but to every senator in this chamber. Many of those people will not benefit from Bill C-228, but they nevertheless shared their heartfelt stories of stress, struggle and hard work with all of us.

Finally, I want to especially recognize the pension advocates and their tireless and selfless efforts fighting for a fairer future for pensioners across this country. I want to recognize and thank groups like the Canadian Federation of Pensioners, Yellow Pages Pensioners’ Group, Air Canada Pionairs, CanAge, CARP, the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, Réseau FADOQ, the Congress of Union Retirees of Canada and the National Pensioners Federation. They have fought, not for their benefit, but for the benefit of the next generation of pensioners in this country. All of these people and groups are why this bill is before us today.

They are looking to us to take the final step to ensure a fair and dignified retirement for pensioners like themselves.

In conclusion, honourable senators, what we have before us is a bill that is about fixing unjust bankruptcy laws. Laws that have kept people’s dignity and respect for their lifetime of work far too long at the back of the line in bankruptcies they had no part in causing in the first place.

Workers and pensioners should not be written off as expendable in insolvency proceedings, as has been in the cases of the Nortel, Sears, Massey Ferguson and White Birch Paper Company bankruptcies, along with many other companies. Companies can fully fund their pension plans, but they choose not to since current legislation allows them to underfund their plans, with the unintended consequence that no one gets hurt except the workers and pensioners. Today, colleagues, you can right the wrong and restore fairness for workers and pensioners in our bankruptcy laws to ensure that their work is placed at the front of the line, not in the back.

The question, of course, you need to consider is whether, after a lifetime of hard work, anybody should have to struggle to make ends meet in their retirement because of an unjust law. Honourable senators, I believe the answer is no, and I would urge you, of course, to support pensioners’ rights to a dignified retirement by adopting this bill.

On a personal level, I have waited 30 years to give this speech. I thought one day the law would finally change. I never expected to be in this chamber when it would happen.

I have to say that how we got here is not quite normal. I want to thank MP Marilyn Gladu for her openness to collaborate with me. I contacted her and asked her about her bill. She said, “Absolutely.” I said, “I have some suggestions. Would you like to consider them?” She said, “Okay.” We talked, we collaborated and more importantly, of course, was her openness to work with other parties in the other house to achieve the same objectives. I cannot begin to tell you how monumental a task that was to get people here.

In closing, colleagues, there are many sad stories that I can continue to tell you, but I know that for the men and women who would have loved to be here tonight to join us in this discussion and witness this debate — because of the timing of the bill, they are not here — but I know for certain they will have a toast to thank us for doing the right thing. I know you will join my colleagues and I and hopefully vote to support this bill as is, without any amendments, and truly create history for working people in this country.

Thank you.