New law softens job loss

OTTAWA -- You showed up to work one day to find the doors locked and a sign on the door saying the company had gone belly up.

Not only did you lose your future paycheque, but your pension and vacation pay also went up in smoke.

But not anymore, thanks to a little-publicized change to Canada's bankruptcy laws which was finally acclaimed Sept. 18.

It had its roots in Manitoba.

Manitoba NDP MP Pat Martin was made aware by a constituent in 2004 that when a company goes bankrupt, the employees were the last in line for payouts as the company is liquidated.

He found out it meant $2 billion to $3 billion in unpaid wages were disappearing each year from the 10,000 to 13,000 businesses that go bankrupt annually. In Manitoba, between June 2008 and June 2009, 92 companies filed for bankruptcy.

Martin sent a flyer to his constituents seeking their input on whether this seemed fair and he said he was overwhelmed by the response.

So he introduced a private member's bill to make employees the first priority, not the last.

That idea gained support in the House of Commons and became part of a larger government bill amending bankruptcy laws passed by the Liberals in 2005. But it was never proclaimed.

In 2007, the Conservatives introduced a bill amending the Liberal bill that had already passed and then the issue just seemed to sit stagnant for months.

The government indicated over the summer it was working on getting the changes proclaimed, and then quietly in mid-September, they did.

Martin said the only way he found out was another NDP MP asked a question about the Nortel bankruptcy and Industry Minister Tony Clement mentioned the new regulations had finally taken effect.

Now, if you lose your job because your company goes belly up, the government has a fund to pay out wages and benefits owing, and then the government will get in line to get repaid from the company once it is liquidated. Repaying the fund will be the number 1 priority in that process.

"This is a great example of how a grassroots idea can actually go somewhere," Martin said. "The people in Winnipeg can take credit for a very positive thing."

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Winnipeg's first Giveaway Weekend just took place, an idea the city co-opted from the nation's capital.

But Winnipeg shouldn't stop there when it comes to stealing Ottawa's trashy ideas. Particularly, its new plan for curbside composting.

It makes me wince every time I think of driving along streets in Winnipeg in the fall and seeing the row upon row of leaf-filled garbage bags destined for the local landfill, safely protected from the elements by non-biodegradable plastic.

It also makes me think of Liberal MP Justin Trudeau's musings at an event over the summer that he finds it hilarious we pick up dog poop in plastic bags, thereby putting one of the most biodegradable substances on the planet into one of the least so it is protected in our landfills for all eternity.

Which made me feel guilty about the daily plastic bags filled with cat litter that end up in my garbage bin.

So it was with glee this week I found Ottawa is finally rolling out a curbside composting program. The city has long collected leaves and yard waste at the curb, but now will collect everything from orange peels to cat litter.

Over the next few months, 240,000 homes in the city will get a green bin delivered, along with a small kitchen-friendly bin. In January, the city will start collecting them every other week and twice weekly in summer, when heat could make these bins start to smell.

Yes, composting is expensive. Ottawa will spend $8 million in upfront capital and $13.4 million every year, and Ottawa property taxes are rising. But it's worth it. It will almost cut in half what ends up in Ottawa landfills.

Winnipeg city council says the city can't compost because it can't afford it. How could it, when freezing taxes in perpetuity seems to be the only priority of successive mayors, and city council recently voted down an attempt to increase landfill dumping fees that could have helped finance curbside composting?

Winnipeg already has the distinction of being the worst at recycling in the country and had the second-highest increase in the amount of garbage it produces

The city won't shed that reputation anytime soon, now that other cities which already recycle more and toss out less are adding curbside composting to the mix.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 28, 2009 A7