Prime Minister François Legault does not seem to intend to touch the bonuses of senior executives, but concedes that there are too many performance bonuses that are distributed each year in state-owned companies.
“Total compensation must be competitive with private enterprise,” replied Mr. Legault, to the parliamentary leader of Quebec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. “In some cases, it’s a good thing to have bonuses when you challenge yourself to measure the performance of a senior executive.”
On Wednesday, the payment of variable compensation to executives and employees of state-owned enterprises was again debated in the National Assembly.
Last week, Mr. Legault defended the $6.3 million salary with bonuses paid to the CEO of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec, Charles Emond.
In recent weeks, the bonus payment for $30.62 million to Hydro-Québec had caused ink to flow in the media, as had the $4 to $5 million at Loto-Québec and the approximately $9 million at the Société alcohol from Quebec.
In the law
On Wednesday, Québec solidaire proposed as part of the detailed study of Bill 4 strengthening the governance of Crown corporations and amending other legislative provisions to prohibit bonuses for members “of the board of directors, managers and supervisors”, and to establish a salary ceiling based on the lowest remuneration.
Finance Minister Eric Girard shut the door on ending bonuses, saying the bill “does not contain a provision on controlling executive compensation.”
Mr. Girard also mentioned that he does not agree with the idea of abolishing variable compensation for all senior executives.
Québec solidaire’s request for an amendment was rejected.
Bill 4 should also allow the government to remunerate and cover the expenses of all members of the boards of directors of Crown corporations. Until now, only administrators of commercial government enterprises had access to it.
change of speech
In 2015, the speech of the CAQ, when it was in opposition, was not the same about bonuses. Mr. Legault found the payment of $ 22 million in bonuses at Hydro-Québec “scandalizing”.
For his part, François Bonnardel, now Minister of Transport, argued that it was “nonsense” to pay bonuses to a state company that has a monopoly like the SAQ.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Legault reiterated that he wanted to reduce the number of employees who have access to bonuses. He clarified that this change could not be made quickly, however, since some workers have contracts that include variable remuneration.
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