Commons blames Air Canada for executive bonuses

The House of Commons has adopted a motion by the Quebec block transport critic, Xavier Barceló Duval, that explicitly demands it. what or what [la] Chambers decried Air Canada’s top management’s decision to award itself $20 million in bonuses after the airline received nearly $6 billion in public aid..

The Quebecoa bloc also urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to do so They are demanding reimbursement and freezing nearly $6 billion in aid to Air Canada by thenYou could read on the Twitter account of a block member.

Remember that of the $20 million in bonuses approved by Air Canada’s board of directors, half have already been awarded. For qualified company directors.

Announcing this week the presence of Stimulus and private stock options (stock options) For Air Canada directors, he aroused the discontent of opposition parties in Ottawa, as well as the indignation of many unions.

The information, made public Monday, in a report to the airline’s shareholders, was not long ago denounced by the Air Canada Flight Attendants Association. The union then called for more than half of its 21,700 employees to be laid off in 2020, without federal wage support, not to mention $5 billion in financial losses.

Quebec bloc leader Yves Francois Blanchett urged Air Canada executives on Tuesday to pay those bonuses. vile and indecentWhile Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole said that’s not the case Suitable for the use of taxpayer money for the salaries of private sector executives.

Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez also called on the airline to be responsible and reconsidering.

Cautiously, the Ministry of Finance transferred the responsibility to the airline, noting that The support provided to Air Canada through the CUGE loan clearly indicates the executive compensation limits.

Federal loan in the crossfire

On Wednesday, Justin Trudeau called the situationUnacceptable He said Canadians have the right to ask for it powerful explanations To the largest airline in the country.

The Prime Minister said he was especially shocked to see this during That Air Canada was negotiating its contracts with us, Air Canada was offering huge bonuses to CEOs.

But Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland avoided commenting on the issue for 24 hours after the news broke. Only after the insistence of the media expressed her disappointment, describing the decision of Air Canada asinappropriate.

I say this as one of the major shareholders of the company after the government bailout, specially. However, Minister Freeland does not intend to demand reimbursement.

In April, Ottawa provided more than $5 billion in repayable loans to Air Canada. This bailout includes limits on CEO compensation In the future. In fact, maximum dividends and share buybacks come into effect upon conclusion of the agreement, up to 12 months after the loan is repaid.

Air Canada also received $656 million in 2020 from the federal government’s emergency wage subsidy program, the largest amount publicly disclosed by any company.