workedover.ca

I wanted to post a letter my father sent to newspapers in Southern Ontario.  He has become actively involved in the pensioners rights movement started by retirees from Nortel which has filed for bankruptcy and is currently being liquidated. Please read and feel free to circulate.

We are not going away!

On October 7 some 2,000 Nortel pensioners, former employees and supporters rallied at the Legislature in Toronto.  We called on the Government of Ontario to prevent the wind-up of our pensions under current regulations, to honour our entitlement under the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund and to engage with governments at all levels to address the pension crisis facing Canadians.  Formal requests by representative groups to meet with the government to explore possible solutions have gone unanswered.  The invitation for the government to address the rally went unanswered.  While the government wastes billions of taxpayer dollars, example the e-health fiasco, the call of desperate pensioners and disabled workers, many of whom will soon be forced to the welfare rolls, go unanswered.

The Government of Quebec is showing leadership and making a conscious effort to support Nortel pensioners by offering to take over the management of their pension.  The Quebec plan allows pensioners three investment options aimed at increasing the value of their underfunded pension.  The Ontario government has shown no interest in such creativity.  In fact the apparent lack of interest in pensioners and disabled workers smacks of indifference and arrogance.  Pensioners have a right to their pensions and benefits and will continue to fight for them; we are not going away.

Chuck McEwan

London, Ontario