Amid controversy in Ottawa, senior Air Canada officials have waived their bonuses.
“The General Vice Presidents and the current President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada have chosen to voluntarily return their bonus and their stock appreciation rights for 2020,” the company said in a statement Sunday evening.
Former Air Canada President and CEO Colin Rovins, who retired in February 2021, will donate the value of his bonus and stock appreciation rights for 2020 to the Air Canada Foundation.
“Funds from a taxpayer dollar and financial assistance from the Government of Canada will not be used to give bonuses to Air Canada employees or executives,” the airline said.
In early 2020, senior executives and 3,200 managers voluntarily agreed to deduct a total of $ 11.5 million from their base salary. The company said the decline could be offset by stock appreciation rights.
“One step in the right direction”
“Although Air Canada has been able to avoid this situation completely, we recognize that this is a step in the right direction on behalf of the five senior executives in terms of reimbursement of bonus and accolade units. It is only natural that Canadians should expect companies to act responsibly when receiving financial assistance from the government at the right time – especially when it comes to executive compensation. ”
Last Wednesday, Justin Trudeau expressed his dissatisfaction with the payment of these bonuses. During Question Hour in the House, Air Canada invited “shocked” Canadians to “explain its decision and its cause” to find out the news.
“We have signed an agreement that, among other things, the pay of officers will be limited […] Even when Air Canada is negotiating its deals with us, we can see that Air Canada is giving huge bonuses to executives, which is not entirely acceptable, ”he said.
On Thursday, the founders unanimously approved a resolution submitted by Deputy Javier Barsalou-Duval.
“This chamber condemns the decision of the senior management of the Air Chamber to give them a bonus […] The company has received nearly $ 6 billion in public assistance, ”Motion said.
The federal government and the company signed a $ 9.59 billion deal three weeks ago, mostly in the form of loans. The deal provides for the reimbursement of customers whose flights have been canceled, but also the purchase of a total of 500 million shares.
With Melanie Marquis, Tap
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