VIA Rail Hands Out Bonuses to Execs While Seeking Taxpayer-Funded COVID Bailout: Records

Signage at a Via Rail station in Ottawa on July 11, 2022. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

VIA Rail gave its executives handsome bonuses while the Crown corporation lost millions of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic and requested a taxpayer-funded bailout, records show.

The records, obtained through Access to Information and released by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), show that 650 VIA Rail managers received a total of $6,434,642 in taxpayer-funded bonuses in 2020, reported Blacklock’s Reporter. This is equivalent to $9,899 paid to each individual. That year an additional $1,430,703 in pay raises were approved for non-union managers.

No bonuses were paid in 2021. However, $1,711,780 in raises was paid to 638 managers in 2021. Figures for 2022 were unavailable.

Corporate records show bonuses for the railway’s $413,500-a-year CEO range up to 28 percent annually. Bonuses for other $327,984-a-year executives range from 35 to 50 percent in addition to $24,000 in annual perks like sports club memberships, reported Blacklock’s.

Meanwhile, the federal government approved a $187 million bailout for the Crown corporation for the period of April 2020 to March 2022.

“If VIA Rail has enough money laying around to hand out millions in bonuses and raises during a pandemic then it shouldn’t be relying on taxpayer bailouts,” CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano told Blacklock’s. “Executives shouldn’t receive lavish pay when VIA hemorrhages money.”

Terrazzano noted in a Jan. 10 video that VIA Rail “has been hemorrhaging money for years.”

According to the the corporation’s 2021 annual report, between 2017 and 2021, it cut back on the number of employees from 3,308 to 2,370—a 28 percent reduction. It also reduced train service and confirmed operating losses of $415 million in 2020 and $370 million in 2021. In an updated Corporate Plan, it projected this year’s operating deficit will run to $411 million.

“Over five years, VIA lost about $1.6 billion. Over those same five years, VIA took about [$]2.5 billion from taxpayers,” Terrazzano said. “Do you think VIA deserves all this extra taxpayer cash or bonuses or pay raises or lavish executive pay?”

“VIA Rail is another example of a government organization rewarding itself for failures,” he said.

In its report, VIA Rail blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the February 2020 pipeline and railway protests for having “significantly impacted” its financial results, prompting it to make the bailout request.

The Epoch Times reached out to the corporation for comment, but didn’t hear back by publication time.

VIA Rail, previously run by Canadian National Railway, was established as a Crown corporation in 1978. Critics for years questioned ongoing subsidies for VIA, according to Blacklock’s.

Other Crown Corporations

Terrazzano said in his video that VIA Rail isn’t the only Crown corporation that has handed out bonuses to employees at a time when many Canadian taxpayers are struggling with decades-high inflation, while still coping with the impacts of the pandemic.

“The Bank of Canada handed over $45 million in bonuses and raises during the pandemic and as inflation took off,” he said.

The CTF said in a July 2022 release that the Bank of Canada gave pay raises to 1,728 employees costing $5.3 million, and in 2021 it gave pay raises to 1,857 employees costing $5.2 million. The bank also gave bonuses to 1,632 employees in 2020 costing $16.2 million. In 2021, it gave bonuses to 1,752 employees, costing $18.4 million.

Terrazzano also pointed to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which handed out nearly $60 million in bonuses and raises to its employees in 2020 and 2021, while also noting bonuses paid by the CBC.

“The CBC handed out [$]51 million in bonuses and raises during the pandemic,” he said, adding that the Liberal government has recently given the CBC an extra $42 million to recover from the pandemic.