(Ottawa) The three main opposition parties have agreed to advance the Conservative bill on the protection of pension funds. Unless there is a reversal, it should therefore be adopted in the House of Commons after it has been studied in committee. Such a legislative measure has been awaited for years by retirees.
Posted at 6:38 p.m.
Conservative Marilyn Gladu agreed to drop parts of her private bill to reach a compromise with the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois. NDP MP Daniel Blaikie and Bloc Québécois MP Marilène Gill had each introduced their own legislation to protect workers’ pension funds in the event of their employer’s bankruptcy.
“There are amendments that we agreed on,” said Mr.me Gladu at a press conference on Tuesday. All parties have indicated their desire to study the bill in committee and, beyond that, to ensure that Canadians who have worked all their lives get the compensation and the pension they deserve. »
Retirees would therefore become priority creditors and would be paid before “other large companies and banks”. His bill also provides for the tabling of an annual report in the House of Commons on insolvent funds and a mechanism that would allow such funds to be transferred to ensure its solvency.
“We are at a crossroads where obviously there is a real possibility [de le faire adopter] “, noted Mr.me Gill, who is on his third attempt since 2015.
The three MPs agreed to eliminate the part of Bill C-228 that would have allowed the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to make changes to workers’ pension funds without consulting them. The NDP’s support is also conditional on severance pay and termination bonuses being protected in the event of bankruptcy.
“This is an issue that has been there for a long time and we never really had the parliamentary circumstances we needed to be successful,” said Mr. Blaikie. He had to abandon his desire to also protect workers’ group insurance, an important element of his bill. “We are ready to live with that,” he explained in an interview.
Second reading debate on the bill will resume on Wednesday. The support of New Democrats and the Bloc ensures that it will make it to the parliamentary committee stage, where it will be the subject of further study in the fall.
Private bills are more difficult to pass than government bills. A draw is made at the beginning of the legislature to determine the order in which they will be debated. That of Mme Gladu arrived at the 16e rank and that of the NDP, at 66e. The Bloc bill ended up in 277e rank and had little chance of passing the parliamentary stages.
If the three opposition parties have managed to compromise, the Liberals have still not given their support. Bill C-228 could still be passed in the House of Commons without the support of the government, which does not hold a majority of seats.