Canadian Government Paid Half a Billion in Bonuses During Pandemic: Taxpayer Federation

A file photo of a Canadian dollar coin, or a "Loonie." Mark Blinch/Reuters

Almost every executive in the federal government—98 percent—received bonuses last year totalling just under $200 million, according to Canadian treasury data. That brings the total federal bonuses to more than half-a-billion during the pandemic years, says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CFT).

“Canadians are worried about missing a meal, but bureaucrats aren’t even worried about missing their bonus,” said Franco Terrazzano, CFT federal director, in a release March 21.

Terrazzano pointed to government-published performance data showing federal departments have met less than half their targets in recent years.

“If you don’t meet half of your targets in the real world you get shown the door, not handed a big fat bonus cheque,” Terrazzano said.

On March 21, CFT published data on federal bonuses from documents it obtained through an access-to-information request. Blacklock’s Reporter also published data from Treasury Board briefing notes prepared for an appearance at the Commons government operations committee late last year.

Matching Private Sector

The briefing notes showed 98 percent of executives, covering every department and agency, received bonuses last year. Treasury staff said the bonuses were necessary to stay competitive with private sector corporations, which also paid bonuses.

“Similar plans that reward executives for the delivery of expected results are common among Canadian private and public sector organizations,” said the briefing notes.

“Canada has a world class public service with employees committed to providing the highest level of service to Canadians,” Treasury Board President Mona Fortier wrote in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons last September, according to Blacklock’s. “In fact Canada’s public service is regularly recognized globally for its quality and effectiveness.”

CFT summarized the bonuses for 2020 and 2021 as well, along with performance records. In 2020, the government paid $171 million in bonuses and public service hit 48 percent of its performance targets. In 2021, the government paid $190 million in bonuses and hit 45.7 percent of its targets. In 2022, it paid $198 million, and targets have not yet been reported on.

The total from 2020 to 2022 is about $560 million in bonuses.

Bank and VIA Rail Bonuses

Two examples of Crown corporations giving bonuses even as their profits slumped are the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and VIA Rail, both of which CFT reported on earlier this year.

BDC issued a total of $93 million in bonuses to its employees over the course of 2020 and 2021. CTF said in a Jan. 30 statement that BDC also gave its employees a total of $11 million in pay raises and did not issue any pay cuts.

In 2020, BDC reported a net loss of $218 million. It did, however, recover in 2021 with a net income of $2 billion.

VIA Rail gave its executives $6.4 million in bonuses and $1.4 million in raises in 2020.  It did not give bonuses for 2021, but gave raises totalling $1.7 million. The Crown corporation received a $187 million bailout for the period of April 2020 to March 2022.