Hon. Lucie Moncion: Will the senator take a question?

Senator Wells, we have discussed this before. I want to understand the number of people who have access in Canada to a defined benefit plan and which of it is publicly funded and which of it is privately funded.

Senator Wells: Thank you very much for your question. I do know that there is approximately $350 billion under defined plans now. I don’t know how many people that represents, and $350 billion is a lot of money, of course. The number of companies that go bankrupt every year is in the hundreds. Recently, it has been in the low hundreds. About 10 years ago, it was in the high hundreds. I hate to say that the numbers are quite low, but they are.

Again, I don’t know the number of people under private or public, but that is something we could explore at committee.

Senator Moncion: I just want to add to the last comment you made. It’s information that would be valuable to the members of the committee so that we have a better understanding of how many people have the golden benefits and how many are maybe not as well protected. Having these numbers often makes it easier for us to make a decision at the end of the process when this bill comes back to us — wouldn’t you think?

Senator Wells: I know that defined programs are obviously less and less these days — I think even less than 10%. But you’re right. We need to know the scope of this. However, colleagues, it’s also important to not forget the principle of the bill, and that’s to protect those who are at the end of the line and who have been paying into a pension. In fact, when you sign on with a company and you pay into a pension, it’s essentially a contract. It’s an agreement that you have — that’s one of the benefits, like your salary or your hours — when you sign up with a company. It’s that contract that this bill aims to protect.

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