Statement made on 21 October 2010 by Senator Art Eggleton
Hon. Art Eggleton:
Honourable senators, my question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Time is running out for over 400 Nortel employees who are on long-term disability. At the end of the year, they will be cut off from the company medical benefit plan. They will have less than half the income they have now, which is less than half of what it was when they were in the workforce. They are in a desperate situation and time runs outs at the end of December.
One of the things they asked for when they heard the government might purchase Nortel's Carling Campus was that a condition be put in place that some of that money go to help meet the conditions and obligations the company has failed to meet with respect to these sick employees.
On Tuesday of this week, the federal government announced that it purchased Nortel's Carling Campus for $208 million. Did the government make a purchase condition that money be set aside for the disabled Nortel employees so that these people can live in dignity?
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