World financial news

Asian economic growth will slow to the weakest since the 1998 financial crisis as the global recession hurts exports, the Asian Development Bank said, cutting its forecast for the second time in four months.

Asia excluding Japan will grow 3.4 percent this year, less than a 5.8 percent estimate in early December and a 7.2 percent forecast in September, the Manila-based institution said in a report today. The economies may recover next year with a 6 percent expansion, it said.

Global trade may contract for the first time since World War II this year, the World Trade Organization predicts, as U.S. and European demand slumps. Asia’s expansion in the next two years will be “well below” recent growth rates, hindering efforts to reduce poverty in a region where more than half the population live on less than $2 a day, the ADB said.

“The short-term outlook for the region is bleak as the full impact of the severe recession in industrialized economies is transmitted to emerging markets,” ADB’s acting chief economist Lee Jong-Wha said in a statement. “The concern for the region is that it is not yet clear that the U.S., European Union and Japan will recover as soon as next year.”

Asia needs to reduce its dependence on exports, and implement more policies to boost domestic consumption, the lender said. Overseas shipments account for about 32 percent of Asia’s gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.

Stimulus Limited

Central banks across Asia have lowered interest rates to stimulate demand, and governments are pumping more than $700 billion in spending, tax cuts and cash handouts into their economies to kick-start local consumer and business spending.

“It is uncertain these conventional monetary policies and discretionary fiscal policies can continue to support demand until external demand recovers,” the ADB said. “If the planned fiscal packages turn out to be ineffective or insufficient, many Asian economies will not have room to resort to additional fiscal packages.”

Economic reports continue to signal deteriorating conditions in the world’s largest markets. Japan’s exports plunged an unprecedented 49.4 percent in February from a year earlier, European confidence fell to the lowest on record in March, and U.S. jobless benefits data show more Americans are spending longer periods out of work.

In Asia, Chinese industrial companies’ profits dropped for the first time on record in the first two months of the year, while South Korea’s industrial production fell 10 cashadvance.3 percent in February from a year earlier.

Job Losses

Exports by developing Asian economies may shrink 10.3 percent this year, after growing 14.7 percent in 2008, the ADB said. Imports will probably contract 11.9 percent.

The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index has dropped 46 percent in the past year, while nine of 10 Asian currencies tracked by Bloomberg have dropped against the dollar in 2009.

“Across the region, factory closures and job losses are rising, weighing on consumer sentiment and forcing households to cut back on spending,” the ADB said. “Slowing demand and the uncertain economic environment are discouraging investment. As business sentiment continues to degenerate, capital spending will be restrained.”

Inflation, which averaged 6.9 percent in developing Asia last year, may ease to 2.4 percent in 2009 and 2010 as demand shrinks and commodity prices tumble, the ADB predicts.

China will expand 7 percent this year, from 9 percent in 2008, the ADB predicts. The World Bank expects Asia’s second- largest economy to grow 6.5 percent this year, while the government says 8 percent is possible.

Southeast Asia

India’s economy will grow 5 percent this year, the ADB said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government expects growth in the year starting April 1 to be slower than the 7.1 percent it projected for the current year, while the International Monetary Fund forecasts an expansion of 5.3 percent.

In Southeast Asia, the ADB expects the economies of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore will shrink this year, dragging growth in the region to 0.7 percent in 2009. The East Asian economies of South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong will also contract, it said.

Some of the world’s biggest financial companies including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. have collapsed as banks and other financial institutions reported about $1.3 trillion of writedowns and losses since the start of 2007. Asian financial systems have weathered the crisis “quite well” and bank lending is flowing “normally,” the ADB said.

“Nevertheless, the global financial crisis is far from over, and the speed and scale of its resolution remain subject to a great deal of uncertainty,” the ADB said. “The biggest risk to the region’s continuing financial stability is the specter of a deep and protracted downturn.”

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NEW YORK – The New York Times Co. is cutting pay for most employees by five per cent for a nine-month period and laying off 100 people.

The company's flagship newspaper (NYSE: NYT) reported on its Web site today that the cuts will hit most nonunion workers and run from April through December. Employees will receive 10 days off in return.

The Times reported that union employees have been asked to take the cut voluntarily to avoid potential layoffs at the company, which has been struggling with an industrywide advertising downturn pay day loans.

Job cuts will come in the business operations of The New York Times, amounting to five per cent of the total 2,000 workers in that part of the company.

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Eastman Kodak Co. will eliminate about 300 jobs as it shuts down two different manufacturing operations at its Colorado plant this year.

Kodak’s Colorado plant is in Windsor, north of Denver.

The move is part of Kodak’s ongoing efforts to “maintain competitiveness and maximize utilization of worldwide manufacturing capacity,” the Rochester-based company said Tuesday.

Kodak (NYSE: EK), said by the end of 2009 it will shut down the Windsor plants’ printing plate manufacturing operation and a converting and packaging facility for motion picture films. The work of those divisions will be transferred to other Kodak plants that have extra capacity, the company said online payday advance.

Kodak said much of the plate production handled by the Windsor plant will be transferred to its plant in Columbus, Ga. The other division, converting and packaging of motion picture films, will be transferred to the company’s primary film manufacturing center in Rochester, Kodak said.

In some cases, impacted employees will be offered the opportunity to take other positions at the Colorado Site, or to transfer to the other Kodak sites, the company said.

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"What goes up must come down. Spinning wheel, got to go ’round."
– From the song Spinning Wheel, by Blood Sweat and Tears.

On the shores of the Sheepscot River near Wiscasset, Me., sits what’s left of a decommissioned nuclear plant called the Maine Yankee. Shut in 1997, the plant’s containment building was destroyed in 2005 and the site has been cleaned up.

Sort of.

In 2004, about 1,400 highly radioactive fuel rods were transferred from pool storage to a secure dry-storage facility. The spent fuel remains there, inside 60 airtight steel canisters spread out over five hectares of fenced-in land.

It’s not what most would consider prime real estate – unless, of course, you’re John Douglas. The founder and chief executive of Toronto-based Riverbank Power Corp. considers the 160-hectare site an ideal location for his company’s first underground power generation project, an initiative that could set the standard for large-scale energy storage.

"Maine will be a great example of what we’re trying to do," says Douglas, a former wind developer who sold his business, Ventus Energy Inc., in 2007 for $140 million. Douglas, fully aware that the wind’s intermittent nature has limited its potential, has since focused his attention on ways to store that energy – to create, in effect, a massive battery for the grid.

Riverbank plans to dig 600 metres deep and construct massive underground caverns that can hold about 3.8 billion litres of water. Beside the caverns the company will install four turbines, each capable of generating 250 megawatts of electricity. Taken together, that’s enough to power 300,000 homes. Each turbine will be connected to a vertical concrete shaft that leads to the surface and opens up to the river.

During times when electricity is in high demand, Riverbank would divert water from the river and let it fall down the long shafts. The motion of the water spins the turbines and generates electricity, which is carried back to the surface and injected into the power grid. The water then flows into the underground caverns for temporary storage.

The system can work for six hours at full tilt until the reservoirs are filled.

At night, when demand is low and power is cheap, and when wind farms are most active, Riverbank would reverse the process by using the hydro turbines to pump the water ack to the river, using the off-peak electricity, allowing the process to repeat itself the next day.

Douglas calls his system the Aquabank. He says it will be cheaper to develop than a wind farm with equivalent generating capacity. The business model is simple: Riverbank would earn much of its revenues by selling electricity when the price is highest and buying it when it’s lowest.

Aquabank is not much different than a conventional hydroelectric pumped storage station, except that instead of the water falling from a naturally formed reservoir down to a lake or river, the water falls from a lake or river into an underground man-made cavern.

"The excavation of the powerhouse and the underground reservoir is basic underground mining using techniques that have been around for 100 years," says Douglas. "Excavating down 2,000 feet is not a problem if you have the right rock."

Douglas says he started to seriously consider the idea a few years ago while touring the Robert-Bourassa hydroelectric generation station, a part of Hydro-Quebec’s James Bay Project and the largest hydro station in Canada. The facility’s turbines are located within a giant rock cathedral about 140 metres underground.

For him, it was proof that such massive engineering projects were possible and had enormous advantages over conventional pumped storage. Most natural geological formations that are ideal for above- ground pumped storage are either already developed or too remote, requiring expensive expansions to the transmission network. They also require the flooding of huge swaths of land.

"Building new transmission is no easy feat and when you talk about flooding land, it’s really difficult," Douglas says.

Aquabank offers more flexibility in terms of location, as long as some basic conditions are met no fax cash advance. Riverbank targets sites that are near large bodies of water and have the right subsurface rock conditions. Sites must also be located near a substation and transmission lines with adequate capacity – requirements that make the Maine Yankee an ideal location.

Stanislav Pejovic, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Toronto and an expert in hydraulic energy systems, has been briefed on the Aquabank approach. He says one of the biggest benefits of an underground pumped storage facility is that most of it would be hidden, making NIMBYism less likely.

"You’d only see transmission lines and a small building," Pejovic says. "It’s a very positive development. I think in the near future this is important for Ontario."

The province’s Independent Electricity System Operator is aware of the Aquabank design and believes the underground pumped-storage concept could prove valuable as Ontario pushes to get more solar and wind power on the grid.

Such intermittent power sources must be shadowed with backup generation, typically natural gas plants, which can be fired up quickly to compensate for power drops that occur when the wind stops blowing or clouds block the sun.

Pumped storage is an ideal replacement for this natural gas generation. It can be turned on and off more quickly. It is free of emissions. And, unlike natural gas, it can absorb surplus power generated overnight when nuclear and wind generation exceeds demand.

It’s part of the reason Energy Minister George Smitherman directed the Ontario Power Authority last September to more seriously explore pumped storage as a component of its 20-year system plan.

"I think projects like this are certainly the kind of thing we’re encouraging the industry to have a good look at," says Bruce Campbell, vice-president of market development at the system operator. "The thing we particularly find attractive is that it’s just very, very flexible."

The bottom line: more system flexibility means more opportunity for renewables.

That’s why Maine is interested. Earlier this month Governor John Baldacci mentioned Riverbank during his "state of the state" address and repeated his government’s goal of developing 3,000 megawatts of wind generation in the state by 2020.

The $1-billion Riverbank project, he said, would be crucial to reaching that goal.

Ontario shares similarly ambitious goals, which is why Douglas is also eyeing his home province. Having spent $4 million over the past year scouting out the best locations in North America he’s identified at least one site in Ontario, out of a list of 15, where the geology, transmission and water availability is ideal and the community supportive enough for a 1,000 megawatt underground station.

"We’re looking forward to announcing our location in Ontario."

Riverbank hopes to have five projects permitted by the end of 2010, by which time Douglas is expecting a better environment for projecting financing. The facilities, ideally, would be ready for operation before 2015.

He’s got some noteworthy backers. His biggest shareholder is New York-based investment giant BlackRock Inc., which manages $1.3 trillion (U.S.) in assets. Riverbank’s chair is former Ontario premier David Peterson and retired Wall Street banker Keith Lord sits on the board.

But Douglas is under no illusion that getting his projects developed will be easy. He knows that in addition to finding the right sites and raising the necessary capital, he’ll have to prove the Aquabank design will have minimal impact on the surrounding environment.

"You have to pick a body of water that’s big enough so it will have minimal impact on current, flow, temperature and water quality," he says. "Each site we’ve selected we’ve completed that analysis. The studies will hopefully prove this out, and nobody is going to let us do this if we’re going to wreck a river or lake."

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How did I get here?

I remember thinking: How did I get to be sitting next to this human resources person while the Bell Canada vice-president on the other side of the desk politely informed me that my employment was being terminated?

I wanted to say: "Wait, I think you’ve made a mistake." Instead I just kept smiling and nodding my head. Smiling so they wouldn’t see me breaking inside.

I shook the VP’s hand as she left with the HR employee, and a career counsellor took the chair across from me. I made my smile even bigger. I now wanted out of that room as quickly as possible.

That whole meeting last Aug. 12 took 12 minutes. Twelve minutes to end a seven-year climb.

I didn’t think, at the time, about the possibility of what 12 minutes could begin. It took my border collie, Sophie, to lead me back to myself and what I really wanted in life, which turns out not to be corporate success after all.

Seven years earlier, at the age of 28, I had clutched my still-wet MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business in one hand and firmly grasped the bottom rung of the corporate ladder in the other.

I stared up that ladder and envisioned at the top a VP title, a six-figure income, a big office and an even bigger bonus.

I never paused to consider my definition of success versus society’s definition, or that maybe I should have expected something else, something more for myself.

Each job I took over the years was about achieving a better title, a better salary, a better bonus. Most of all, I wanted people I met to be impressed with my role in the corporate world.

On my third company switch, I landed at Bell Canada as the associate director of product communications and had the best compensation plan yet. At Bell, I thought, I could really put some rungs behind me on that corporate ladder, as it was a huge company with lots of internal mobility. My new role was totally different from anything I had ever done or expressed any interest in doing. But it was a foot in the door, another rung higher – and that’s what was important.

After six months, the rosy glow of Ma Bell was already beginning to wear off. I convinced myself that all I needed was to get into a better position in the company and then I would be back to loving my work life. However, I was unable to change roles immediately for a number of reasons, so I decided I would just grit my teeth and put in my time.

And just as I began to grit, Sophie came into my life.

She was then 8 weeks old. I had never owned a dog before, but had been dreaming about having one since I was 10 years old.Our bond grew as we embarked on training and a life together. I discovered a real sense of joy with her that I had never felt before. Something began to shift ever so slightly in me. Sophie was becoming more of a focus, rivalling my work in importance.

My life was full with a wonderful family, great friends I had known since my school days in Newmarket, and a man who meant the world to me, Ian. But my relationship with Sophie was beginning to have a profound effect on the way I viewed the world.

Sophie has an infectious spirit and energy for life, but she’s a gentle soul. She is incredibly smart and knows about 50 words and numerous tricks. She has spent time doing agility training and some sheep herding, and is an official fundraiser/participant in the Terry Fox Run. Her love of people knows no bounds, and she wins the heart of everyone she meets.

A friend who worked for a local free paper heard me talking about Sophie one day. They were putting together a pet section at his paper, and he thought I should try writing about her. The little story went over well with readers, and so "Tales of Two Pets" was born, a monthly column about life with Sophie and my cat, Elora. I continued to write that column, on a volunteer basis, for the next 18 months. On a whim, I submitted one of my favourite pieces to Animal Wellness magazine, and it was accepted.

It was fun to write about Sophie, but I was just dabbling in the craft. There was no money in it – it was just a hobby, a nice little distraction from my day job, a day job that I had become more and more discontent with.

Then came the announcement that 2,500 management jobs would be cut at Bell. I knew mine would be among them when I received a message on my BlackBerry the evening of Monday, Aug. 11, while I was riding the train home to Mississauga, requesting that I attend a meeting at 9 a.m. the next day.

In the weeks that followed, I could not make myself say, "I was let go no teletrack payday loans." In conversations, I would use expressions like, "I was caught in the crossfire." Or I hid behind the magnitude of 2,500 jobs – "2,500 of us were released due to restructuring." But I knew the truth, and the truth was that 85 per cent of the people with Bell Canada when I was there still had jobs. And I was not one of them.

I kept my true feelings about my unemployment guarded. My stock answer when people asked how I was doing was: "Great! That job was never right for me anyway." While it was true that I had not been happy in my role, I had always been in control of my career decisions. I struggled with being told that my services were no longer required. I didn’t know who I was if I wasn’t the Career Path Girl.

While family, friends and Ian offered wonderful support, I felt uncomfortable around people. I was embarrassed, terrified and lost. The only solace I found in those first few weeks was with Sophie. I felt like I could let my guard down with her.

There were many days when I just wanted to stay on the couch, to hide away from a world that didn’t seem to have a place for me. But dogs need to be walked, so Sophie forced me to get up and get outside – moving, breathing fresh air and feeling the warmth of the late summer sun on my face. It was on those walks that I started to really think and revisit those questions I had begun to ask myself near the end of my time with Bell. During those strolls I also found a different way to focus – through the lens of a camera.

I discovered a whole new way of viewing the world. It felt good to be creating, to work on capturing images, moments, pieces of the world around me that spoke to me, moved me.

And seven times out of 10, my camera was focused on Sophie. I was snapping photos of her on a walk in Orangeville, watching her gleefully jump off the trail to run through some leaves, when I became aware of something I had missed before. I noticed that her favourite parts of the walk were off the path that stretched ahead of her into the distance. And I started to wonder, what if I didn’t get back on mine, back on my career path?

There was not one moment in my entire career when I felt as much joy as I did when I was writing about Sophie. And my growing love of photography was stirring up an enthusiasm I haven’t felt in years.

But the reality was that it would not be possible to pursue writing/photography full time, with my minimal experience and exposure, and still pay the bills.

Initially, I would have to find a job that would allow me to take small steps towards the dream.

I went to a listing for a one-year contract position that I had seen a few weeks back but quickly passed over, as the role didn’t appear to be senior enough. But the position was in the world of pets.

I started my new job on Nov. 10, three months after I lost my job at Bell. I have learned to live on less money – almost 30 per cent less – but have found so much more of worth.

There are only 37 people in my office, so internal mobility and promotion is limited, but I know each person by their first name. I even know the names of their pets.

For the first time in my life I don’t have a five-year career plan. But I spend my days talking about dogs, working on products that benefit their health, communicating with pet owners – and I have never been happier at a job in my life.

That happiness is rooted in two very important concepts. One, my work is finally aligned with my values, with what is really important to me. And the second concept is the one that has perhaps made a bigger difference: I realize that I can define myself in terms of what I love, not just in terms of what work I do. So writing, photography and Sophie are part of that definition. Even if they are not part of my livelihood yet, they are a part of me.

I spend my evenings chasing sunsets with Sophie and writing about our journey in this life together on my blog, Finding Sirius (findingsirius.blogspot.com). I have also started a photo essay initiative, The Charlie Project (thecharlieproject.blogspot.com), which attempts to capture the spirit of some of the wonderful dogs that I come across in my travels.

I don’t know how those months after I was let go would have played out if I hadn’t had Sophie. She has led me off the path I’d planned for myself and toward something that’s given me true joy.

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Maryland falls among the bottom half of all U.S. states in which to conduct business, and Virginia falls in the top 10, according to Chief Executive magazine.

Maryland ranked No. 31 and Virginia placed No. 7 on the magazine’s 2009 rankings.

The magazine evaluated states on natural resources, regulation, tax policies, quality of living, education and infrastructure, among other categories.

Maryland’s highest ranking came in the category of access to capital, where it is the seventh-best in the country, according to the magazine. Virginia’s highest ranking was in business friendliness (No. 2).

Maryland was No. 11 in technology and innovation, while Virginia was No. 14.

Maryland’s worst rankings were in the transportation (No. 40) and work force (No fast cash now. 41) categories, where Virginia ranked No. 13 and No. 8, respectively.

Maryland was 20th in business friendliness and 37th in quality of life. The magazine ranked the state No. 33 in cost of doing business and 22nd for its education system.

Virginia placed No. 28 for quality of life, and No. 11 in both cost of doing business and its education system.

Texas was ranked first overall on the list.

California was ranked the worst, followed by New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Chief Executive magazine said states that perform well in the rankings tend to have lower taxes and little unionization.

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Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose at least 7.7 percent. KB Home, the fourth-largest U.S. house builder, rallied 9.3 percent, and Home Depot Inc. rose 6.7 percent as housing starts unexpectedly climbed 22 percent in February, the most since 1990. Apple Inc. added 4.4 percent to help lead technology shares higher after updating its iPhone software.

The S&P 500 increased 3.2 percent to 778.12. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 178.73 points, or 2.5 percent, to 7,395.7. The Nasdaq composite index surged 4.1 percent.

"The market was depressed to an extreme level because of the constant stream of bad news and events," said Mark Freeman, a money manager at Westwood Management Corp. in Dallas, which oversees $7 billion. "The mere fact that the negative news has stopped allows the market to come back up to a reasonable level."

JPMorgan rose the most in the Dow, climbing 8.9 percent to $25.14. Citigroup Inc. added 7.7 percent to $2.51.

Centex gained 56 cents, or 8.1 percent, to $7.45.

Home Depot had the Dow’s third-biggest advance, adding 6.7 percent to $21.48.

Apple added 4.4 percent to $99.66.

Cisco Systems Inc. gained 4.5 percent to $16.14. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. added the world’s largest maker of networking equipment to its "conviction buy" list, citing the introduction of its so-called blade platform.

Target Corp. rose 5.6 percent to $30.45. The second-largest U.S. retailer was raised to "buy" at Jefferies Group Inc payday loan companies. Kohls Corp., which also was boosted to that rating, advanced 6.2 percent to $39.70.

Genworth Financial Inc. climbed 20 cents, or 14 percent, to $1.64 and Hartford Financial Services Group advanced 58 cents, or 8.9 percent, to $7.13.

Financial shares in the S&P 500 added 6.6 percent. The group dropped as much as 2.2 percent in the first half hour after analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC that banks’ profit forecasts may come back to haunt them because they probably don’t include writedowns on bad assets and loan losses.

Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said on Friday that his company was profitable in January and February, joining JPMorgan and Citigroup in suggesting the nation’s three biggest banks are recovering from the credit crisis.

Alcoa Inc. led the market lower in early trading after the largest U.S. aluminum company cut its dividend and said it will sell stock to raise cash. The shares slid 53 cents, or 8.7 percent, to $5.59.

Nucor Corp., the largest steelmaker by market value, fell $3.40, or 9.2 percent, to $33.55 after forecasting a first-quarter loss of as much as 65 cents a share.

LaBranche & Co. tumbled 23 percent to $4.60. The fourth-largest market maker at the New York Stock Exchange said it expects to post a loss in the first quarter.

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Nokia Oyj will slash 1,700 jobs globally over the coming few months because of falling demand, the world’s top cellphone maker said on Tuesday.

Nokia said in January it aimed to cut annual costs at its key handset unit alone by more than 700 million euros ($909.3 million) to counter the plunging demand.

Nokia said on Tuesday that, in addition to its handset unit, it would also cut jobs in its marketing unit, corporate development office and global support functions.

Up to 700 jobs would be cut in Finland.

The overall cellphone market is expected to contract by about 10 percent this year, hurt as consumers rein in spending and handset sellers try to clear out unsold phones.

“The first quarter will be weak, then it will improve a little,” said Nordea analyst Martti Larjo. “Some component suppliers have signaled slight improvement.”

Nokia is expected to report January-March earnings per share (EPS) falling to 0.08 euros, the weakest level since the third quarter of 2001, when all vendors in total sold just 94 million phones — less than Nokia alone is seen selling this quarter free credit report.

Nokia said it was continuing to seek savings in operational expenses, looking at all areas and activities.

Last month Nokia said it was offering severance packages to the first 1,000 employees who volunteered to leave, and cut production at its key Salo plant in Finland.

By 0947 GMT, shares in Nokia were 3.5 percent lower at 8.68 euros, underperforming a 2 percent fall on the DJ Stoxx European Technology Index.

Earlier on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs cut Nokia EPS forecasts for 2009 and 2010 due to weaker demand, a lower smartphone market share and greater margin impact from a strong yen.

Goldman said it now expects market volumes to shrink 14 percent this year and increase only 5 percent next year. It had earlier forecast a 10 percent fall for 2009 and 10 percent growth next year. (Additional reporting by Brett Young; Editing by Andrew Macdonald)

($1=.7698 Euro)

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David Jeanes thought he had "Freedom 55" when he retired from Nortel in 2003 with a full pension.

But those dreams are in jeopardy now that his former employer is under bankruptcy protection, and the future of the pension plan has turned into a big question mark.

"It’s really a horror story," says the former software and systems designer for the technology behemoth in Ottawa. "Everyone is worried. And I might be back in the labour market again soon, but at 60 it won’t be easy."

Jeanes is hardly alone. With stock markets tanking and nest eggs quickly evaporating, most people are downsizing their retirement spending plans as they watch their savings drop and as company pension plans face major impairment.

Retiree Dale Leake of Woodstock has some advice for Nortel and General Motors workers fearful about their pension plans: "Keep working after retirement and don’t spend any more than you have to."

She would know. Leake’s husband, Bruce, retired from Gay Lea Foods in October 2000 and found out a few years later his pension would be chopped in half because the plan was underfunded.

Gay Lea is part of a multi-employer pension fund called Participating Co-operatives of Ontario Trusteed Pension Plan, which includes former agricultural workers of the now defunct United Co-operatives of Ontario.

In 2003, the plan, which has been operating since 1959, had a huge shortfall – estimated at $60 million – so it couldn’t meet pension obligations.

Bruce, a former truck driver, got work as a school bus driver to make ends meet. And then a 2006 car accident that broke Dale’s right leg in six places actually had a silver lining – she got a settlement cheque that allowed them to keep their house and continue a modest lifestyle.

"It got us out of the red," she says. "Fate has a funny way of operating."

But along with most pensioners, the couple is cutting back even more now. Fewer dinners out, no big vacations or shopping trips.

"I’m 65. That’s when you’re supposed to say, `Oh well, let’s do it all because there may not be a tomorrow.’ But times are just too scary to do that now."

The battle over the future of the plan isn’t resolved despite a government bailout last year that topped up workers’ pensions to 67 per cent from the original 50.

Hundreds of former employees argue they were deprived of the opportunity to take their retirement savings out of the pension while it was still fully funded payday loans in one hour. Their jobs ranged from mill worker and mill hand to store clerk and driver.

"The average pensioner in our plan in 2003 was 75 years old and was getting $800 a month – and then had to live on half that until last year," says Don Huff, 81, who is retired from management at United Co-ops and lives in Lindsay. "It was a hardship, and it’s not over yet.

"We’re getting older now and some of us are facing health problems," he continues.

"I know someone whose teeth are badly infected and has trouble eating. Another had a stroke and needs a new roof for his house but can’t afford it, especially in this economy. And then there are the widows who are living on some pretty meagre benefits."

They’re expecting later this month to hear from the administrator of the plan to determine whether they’ll get any more than 67 per cent after the final annuities are purchased.

"We consider ourselves extremely fortunate that we are at the 67 per cent (level) when we read what’s happening to other pension plans," says Bruce Chambers, 73, a former manager of the Newmarket Co-op branch.

He retired in 1992 after 35 years there. He says the protracted pension issue goes against the Co-op philosophy of helping others, noting that most of them spent decades working there and fear losing the homes they’ve lived in most of their lives. He knows of one retired worker who has moved in with his son and is sleeping on his couch.

"I can’t stress enough that these are very proud people," says Chambers. "A lot of the pensioners don’t have the disposable income they once had and they’ve had to give up some things."

Meanwhile, Jeanes of Nortel and about 2,000 pensioners in the plan have retained legal counsel to protect their interests.

They include those currently receiving pensions, survivors receiving pensions and deferred pensioners, as well as people terminated prior to the bankruptcy filing in January.

"It’s surprising how many people out there think pensions are guaranteed. That is not the case. It’s not a good situation to be in."

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U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said governments must ensure they can afford measures to support their economies and show investors that borrowing can be repaid.

“Yes, you need to support your economy, but you have got to pay for this,” Darling told BBC Radio 4 today. “You have got to live within your means.”

Darling wants finance officials from the Group of 20 nations meeting near Horsham in southern England to commit to tax cuts or greater public spending to shore up global growth. He also wants commitments to rescue banks and more money for the International Monetary Fund to allow it to bail out troubled countries.

Britain’s budget deficit is ballooning as welfare payments climb and tax revenues fall because of the recession, likely to be the worst since World War II. Darling in November pledged the biggest round of tax cuts and spending increases in two decades, a 25 low fee payday loans.6 billion-pound ($38.8 billion) package aimed at helping voters weather the downturn.

The Treasury last year forecast its deficit to top 118 billion pounds in the year through April 2010. That compares with 36.6 billion pounds in fiscal 2008. Darling is due to update his deficit forecasts in his annual budget statement on April 22.

“Whatever you do, you do it in your national interest,” Darling said today. “At the moment we are borrowing very substantial amounts. In normal times no one would be doing anything like this.”

He told reporters in Horsham yesterday that the U.K.’s efforts to support the economy rank among the highest in the world. He also urged fellow finance ministers to tighten financial regulations.

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