North America

In the year-long economic slump that is the most severe Canada has experienced since the early 1990s, 357,000 people have lost their jobs – in every sector of the economy, and at every level of the work force, The Globe and Mail reported. But the meltdown has also had a devastating impact on a group that does not show up in the monthly unemployment statistics: the retired. Already hobbled by an aging work force and companies’ gradual move away from guarantees for retired workers, Canada’s pension system has been pushed to the breaking point by the downturn.

Former employees of Nortel Networks Inc. pressed MPs on Thursday to change federal bankruptcy legislation to provide more protection for pensioners and laid-off workers of insolvent companies, the Canwest News Service reported. After filing in January in Canada and the U.S. for court protection from creditors, Nortel said it would not pay severance to some laid-off employees and would trim pension benefits.

It did not appear that a single new deal was signed last week at a two-day investment conference in Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere, The New York Times reported. But the simple fact that hundreds of potential investors showed up to network and discuss possible projects created hope in a country that has been long shunned as too unsafe to visit, never mind invest in. Haiti is used to well-meaning foreigners, most of them relief workers, peacekeepers and missionaries. But this was a new group: profit-minded people assessing Haiti based on its bottom line.

The Foreign Office has forced the Cayman Islands' government to investigate the possibility of introducing direct taxes on businesses and residents based there, The Guardian reported. An independent assessment of diversifying the Caribbean tax haven's revenue base is the main condition stipulated by the Foreign Office for allowing the Caymans to borrow from banks. The Cayman government has also agreed to make significant cuts to its public expenditure programme.

Lakeside Steel Inc. is interested in acquiring some or all of the assets of Barzel Industries Inc. through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, Ontario’s Welland Tribune reported. On Sept. 15, Barzel and its U.S. subsidiaries voluntarily petitioned for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and its Canadian subsidiaries filed an application in Canada seeking protection under the provisions of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

Sterlite Industries Ltd said on Monday that it would release Grupo Mexico SAB de CV from a potential legal liability of nearly $8 billion if the Indian miner can win control of bankrupt U.S. copper miner Asarco LLC, Reuters reported. In a court document filed on Monday, Sterlite said that if a federal court approves its plan to acquire Asarco over rival bidder Grupo Mexico's offer, it would not hold Grupo Mexico liable for more than about $900 million of liability related to the 2003 transfer of a Peruvian mine.

Nortel Networks Corp. said Monday that it intends to auction off some of the company's carrier networks business assets in bankruptcy court, The Associated Press reported. Nortel said the auction will be for its next-generation packet core network components, which include software that helps transfer data over wireless networks, related non-patent intellectual property and equipment. Nortel also anticipates granting the buyer a non-exclusive license of relevant patent intellectual property.

The president of a leading European business group has condemned Germany's plan to sweeten the sale of Opel, General Motors' European arm, to a Canadian-led consortium with an offer of billions of euros in subsidies, the Financial Times reported. "We would have been much better off if we had had a structured insolvency. That would have left Opel in Europe in a much stronger position," said Jürgen Thumann, head of BusinessEurope, a pan-European employers' federation.

Canada has decided against launching a review of the $1.13 billion sale of the wireless assets of bankrupt Nortel Networks to Sweden's Ericsson, Industry Minister Tony Clement said on Wednesday. "I am satisfied that the assets sold fall well below the threshold required for a review under the Investment Canada Act," Clement said at a press conference in Toronto, Reuters reported.

Canada's auto warranty program designed to help out the troubled North American car industry ended today and it didn't cost taxpayers a dime, Industry Minister Tony Clement says. "It was never activated because it was conditional upon either Chrysler or GM going into (bankruptcy protection) in Canada and neither of them happened," Clement told the Toronto Star.