OTTAWA – New Democrats welcomed the government’s decision to review the proposed sale of Nortel’s Enterprise Solutions Business and shares of Nortel Government Solutions and DiamondWare to US telecom company Avaya.  New Democrats called on the government not to allow the sale unless Canadian jobs are protected and Nortel workers’ pensions, severances and long-term disability benefits are secured.

“The government has to review the proposed sale closely to decide whether or not it is to the benefit of Canadians” said New Democrat MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre).  “The sale should not go through unless Canadian jobs are protected and the proceeds of any sale go to honour Nortel’s commitments to its Canadian workers”.

The review mechanism in Canada Investment Act is set to protect Canadian interest in cases of foreign takeovers of Canadian companies.  The government may decide that a proposed sale is not to the benefit of Canadians or it may set certain conditions that would protect Canadian benefit. 

New Democrats had earlier called on the government to review the sale of other divisions of Nortel to Ericsson.  Minister of Industry argued that despite the $1.13 billion enterprise value of that sale, the lower book value of the transaction did not trigger the Canada Investment Act review mechanism.  Yesterday New Democrats pointed out that the Minister had been sitting on a series of regulations proposed by his own department which would ensure that companies such as Nortel are assessed by their enterprise value, rather than their unrepresentative book value.

“The Minister should have acted much earlier to defend Canadian benefit in these transactions” said Dewar.  “It is his responsibility to ensure that we do not lose any more jobs or patents, and that Nortel workers do not have to wait any longer for their hard-earned pensions, severances and LTD benefits”.