Sears Canada is holding a huge liquidation sale after filing for bankruptcy earlier this year. Their biggest markdown? The pensions of over 16,000 workers.  

While executives walked away with $9 million in bonuses, thousands of workers now face the holiday season knowing they’ve lost a huge chunk of the pensions they paid into for years.

We need the government to fix the law to give pensioners priority status to be paid out FIRST in future bankruptcies, before executives and shareholders. 

Minister of Innovation Navdeep Bains has the power to reform bankruptcy law to protect pensions. If there’s one thing we know MPs respond to, it’s direct phone calls from voters. If we make enough noise, we can push this issue to the top of the Minister’s agenda, and create momentum for legislation to protect pensions. ? 

Can you make a phone call now to Minister Bains?  It’s easy and only takes a few minutes - enter your information to get started. 

This is a joint campaign from Leadnow, CARP, and the Canadian Federation of Pensioners.

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To make a call:

Make sure your phone is handy, and then enter your information (including your phone number) on this page. The system will call your phone and then patch you through to their office!

Here are some talking points you can use: 

• Hello, my name is [YOUR NAME].
• I am calling on Minister Bains to advocate for amending bankruptcy law to move pensioners, ahead of creditors like banks, to be paid if a company goes bankrupt.
• I care about this issue because (choose one of these reasons, or come up with your own!)
  • People who give years of their life to a company should be assured that their pensions are safe 
  • Over 1 million Canadians are at risk of losing their pensions if their company goes under, so this is too important for the government to ignore. 
  • The current law allows Sears to set a dangerous precedent. They are paying out its owners billions and executives millions while leaving pensions underfunded. This will leave many pensioners reliant on social services. While Sears executives walk away with huge bonuses, the government will leave taxpayers to pick up the bill to support pensioners. 
  • Pensions are deferred wages, they are commitments made by companies and should be protected by governments over executives’ and shareholder profits

To find out what each party has said and done so far on pension protection, click here.

For more on this campaign and others, visit CARP's website at http://www.carp.ca/advocacy-priorities/