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It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 16th, 2018, 6:44 am
by Merry
The following article, written by a man who was CEO of a large company, is worth a read.
http://business.financialpost.com/opini ... ts-workersHere's a quote, but please read the entire article, because it's a real eye opener
Sears Canada is jointly owned by its American parent holding company and a U.S. hedge fund run, strangely enough, by the CEO of the Sears parent holding company. Between 2005 and 2013, the company sold its prime Canadian real estate assets and sent $3.5 billion south of the border to those shareholders by way of special dividends and share buy-backs. On Thursday, lawyers representing former Sears workers met with lawyers for the company to try to reach an agreement on appointing a trustee to review that huge transfer, made while the pension plan was short $300 million. That the Sears Canada Board would make the unconscionable decision to approve this massive asset stripping, while leaving their workers’ pension plan woefully underfunded, begs for legal retribution. But that would only increase the costly and time-consuming wrangling in bankruptcy court, further lessening any chance that the 16,000 laid-off employees and 18,000 retirees will ever receive any part of the meagre assets still left in the company.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau likes to portray the image of a leader looking out for the little guy. It’s time he walked the talk. The federal government should act now to change the law to prevent Sears, and other private-sector defined-benefit pension plan members, from seeing their futures torn apart in bankruptcy court.
Sears pensioners
had to pay into their pension plan (it was a compulsory condition of employment), and consequently were not allowed to save as much in their RRSP's as those not in a pension plan. So to then be denied a pension, while billions were sent to shareholders south of the border is nothing short of criminal. And our Government should be held accountable for ever allowing such a thing to happen.
Why are people not demanding that such a thing never be allowed to happen again?????
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 20th, 2018, 6:49 am
by techrtr
I work with a guy whose wife was a long time employee of Sears. I can't believe that they are getting shafted out of the pensions that they contributed to.
Tru-dope is too busy enjoying his tax payer funded family vacation disguised as a trade mission to India to worry about Canadian former Sears employees.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 20th, 2018, 12:52 pm
by Omnitheo
Tru-dope is too busy enjoying his tax payer funded family vacation disguised as a trade mission to India to worry about Canadian former Sears employees.
http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4542860Canadian and Indian companies have signed 66 new contracts worth $1 billion in total in a deal expected to create 5,800 jobs in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement Tuesday in front of an audience at the Canada-India Business Forum.
Looks like you’re wrong.
But what is the government supposed to do about Sears? I thought you right wingers wanted smaller government, fewer regulations. Leave it all to the private system who’s infinite wisdom has everyone’s best interests at heart.
What regulations do you want the government to impose?
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 20th, 2018, 5:07 pm
by Merry
For starters, there should be regulations preventing companies from giving billions of dollars to their shareholders, when their pension plan is underfunded.
Before sending 3.5 billion south of the border, they should have been made to top up the 300 million shortfall in the pension plan first.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 24th, 2018, 2:59 pm
by Gone_Fishin
Omnitheo wrote:http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4542860Canadian and Indian companies have signed 66 new contracts worth $1 billion in total in a deal expected to create 5,800 jobs in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement Tuesday in front of an audience at the Canada-India Business Forum.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 24th, 2018, 6:42 pm
by justincase
But what is the government supposed to do about Sears? I thought you right wingers wanted smaller government, fewer regulations. Leave it all to the private system who’s infinite wisdom has everyone’s best interests at heart.
What regulations do you want the government to impose?
Funny how Liberals take a conservative approach and Conservatives want to take a Liberal approach
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 25th, 2018, 6:01 pm
by Merry
Trudeau claims to be the champion of the middle class; so how come he allowed all those middle class Sears employees to be ripped off, while their pension money got funnelled to wealthy American investors? He can't have it both ways. Either he's "for" the middle class, or he's not. And in this case he most definitely was not.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 25th, 2018, 10:09 pm
by justincase
Merry wrote:Trudeau claims to be the champion of the middle class; so how come he allowed all those middle class Sears employees to be ripped off, while their pension money got funnelled to wealthy American investors? He can't have it both ways. Either he's "for" the middle class, or he's not. And in this case he most definitely was not.
I agree a tragic chain of events, incompetent management, and the trail goes on.Trudeau has fought tirelessly for the middle-class but has no solutions for the Sears fiasco.There are some private members legislation being put together and will be tabled soon to change the bankruptcy law to make pensioners a priority before creditors. If it a good plan, that doesn't discourage investment and growth in Canada I am sure all the Liberals will support it.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 25th, 2018, 10:25 pm
by The Green Barbarian
justincase wrote:Trudeau has fought tirelessly for the middle-class .
taxing them into oblivion isn't fighting tirelessly for them.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 25th, 2018, 10:27 pm
by Catsumi
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 25th, 2018, 10:40 pm
by GoStumpy
Yeah lets blame Trudeau for what Sears did... Do you people even hear yourself???
Trudeau has been in power for how long?
How long has Sears been in business for?
AND YOU BLAME TRUDEAU????
Oh my god.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 25th, 2018, 11:41 pm
by Dizzy1
GoStumpy wrote:Yeah lets blame Trudeau for what Sears did... Do you people even hear yourself???
Trudeau has been in power for how long?
How long has Sears been in business for?
AND YOU BLAME TRUDEAU????
Oh my god.
In all fairness, he is our current PM and we have given him the authority to be responsible for our well being. Sears shutting down was on his watch. Has he once taken a moment and said "hold on here for a minute. What can I do to help or even prevent from happening again?"
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 26th, 2018, 1:16 am
by Merry
It wasn't the fact that Sears went out of business that is the issue. It is the fact that they were allowed to send billions to the States in the form of dividends for American investors, at the same time as their pension fund was underfunded to the tune of 300 million.
The Government should require companies to fully fund their pension plans before allowing them to pay dividends to investors. Particularly to out of country investors.
This wasn't a case of paying other creditors first following bankruptcy, it was a case of paying dividends while still solvent using money that didn't belong to them.
Those Sears employees paid into that plan. It was their money the company was using to pay those dividends. If the Government had required Sears to fully fund their pension plan prior to paying out any dividends, there would still have been a lot of money left over to pay dividends. But to allow them to pay ALL of the money out in dividends, while knowing that the Pension Plan was underfunded, was nothing short of criminal.
No company should be allowed to pay dividends to investors while their pension plan is underfunded. Dividends should come out of company profits, NOT out of employees pockets.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 26th, 2018, 5:53 am
by Gone_Fishin
You can bet quite heavily that if this had been the Bombardier pension, Trudeau would make sure it was fully funded, especially if it meant a photo-op to hand them our money while wearing new socks with little airplanes on them.
Re: It's time for Trudeau to "walk the talk"
Posted: Feb 26th, 2018, 6:16 am
by Queen K
Sure thing, socks "made in India" perhaps.
But seriously, how do you come up with conjecture like that?
What happened to the employees of Sears should be prosecuted with real sentences handed out to the white collar sociopaths who engineered the whole thing, right down the line.
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