Industry committee  Lenders, really, are not the issue here. They will find a way to adapt. They may charge more for the risk that they're taking and can't calculate, but the real people we have to talk about here are the unsecured trade creditors. Now a 79% recovery for a pensioner is a bad thing.

Industry committee  Possibly, but the solution I have proposed would do that even more directly and wouldn't risk putting the company in an uncompetitive situation to do it. Right now the deficits are measured annually and sometimes only over three years, and then you're given five years to fund it.

Industry committee  Yes. I am proposing that you do three things. Actually, there's a fourth as well, which my friend from Canadian Bankers Association mentioned. The first thing is to put the measuring process into as close to real time as you can. It takes weeks to do the actuarial assumptions to figure out whether your pension is in deficit or not, but you do that quarterly, not annually.

Industry committee  At the end of the day, it's a question of fairness. This bill does nothing to create value. When you put somebody artificially on top of the capital stack, it means that there is somebody who is a loser. This is not a balanced bill. It's not a give-and-take situation. It's a take situation.

Industry committee  Everybody tries to create value but not every company is successful at it. A period of time, while it might be beneficial, really does nothing to alter the fundamental mechanics of this bill.

Industry committee  At the end of the day, greater cost to capital simply means the company is going to be less competitive in a competitive world. My point—

Industry committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for this opportunity to address the committee. I am the president of the Insolvency Institute of Canada, a non-profit organization comprised of Canada’s most experienced restructuring professionals in the legal, accounting and financial fields. The mission of the IIC is to promote excellence and thought leadership in commercial insolvency policy and practice in Canada.