François Legault advocates ending bonuses, but not for the Caisse boss

Québec solidaire (QS) and the Parti québécois (PQ) launched the first salvos on Wednesday morning, days after revelations about bonuses paid to Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) and Loto-Québec for the year 2021 .

Ang SAQwine company in Quebec provided $ 9 million in bonuses to all its staff. Loto-Québec will pay between 4 and 5 million dollars to its staff, but not to its senior executives, while to Société québécoise du cannabis, it will be a zero bonus.

” I urge the Prime Minister to end the bonus parties in the management of our state corporations. It is obscene and it should stop. “

Is it still right to do these popular variable remunerations in monopoly markets for public service? asked PQ MP Martin Ouellet.

During the questioning, François Legault suggested that he would prefer to remove this incentive payment, but only when each contract with senior executives has expired.

” We did not, overnight, put [un contrat] in the trash cans. “

We are a reputable company that must respect the contracts signed. But, in some cases, we must gradually, when the contracts expire, stop paying these bonuses.

An exception

However, Mr. Legault defended the compensation awarded to Charles Emond by the Caisse Board of Directors.

The total salary of the employer CDPQDeposit and investment funds reached $ 4.5 million in 2021, an increase of 30.5% compared to the same period last year.

In addition, he got a paid premium $ 1.8 million for providing future income from his former employer, Scotiabank.

There was a huge amount paid to Scotiabank, not to the individual, to give way to a high-quality Caisse de dépôt manager, with good profits, which brought in hundreds of millions, if not billions more.The chief caquiste argued.

He considers that the compensation of the President of the Caisse is comparable to what was paid to his predecessors.