After giving big bonuses to the bosses, the deposit and placement fund fires the employees

The day after top managers received $11.9 million in bonuses, the Quebec Deposit and Deposit Fund began mass layoffs linked to the merger of its real estate companies, our parliamentary office has learned.

• Read also: $1.3 billion paid by the Deposit Fund to private sector managers

The ax has fallen on CDPQ. Several employees have been interviewed in recent days and learned of their dismissal.

Spokeswoman Kate Monfait confirmed that “work is still ongoing.”

Last January, the deposit fund announced that the merger of its real estate subsidiaries Ivanhoe Cambridge and Aotea Capital would result in job losses.

This extensive reorganization would generate annual savings of $100 million.

“It's really for the purpose of optimizing resources,” Kate Monfett reiterated. Human resources, communications and finance are the sectors that are mainly affected. “Duplication is mainly located in public services, but also in investment services, and has been reviewed with the aim of improving talent.”

Layoffs will continue in the coming weeks. For now, CDPQ still refuses to disclose how many employees will be laid off.

“We said that everyone will be informed of their employment status at the end of April.”

The fund will then conduct a full evaluation next May and the details will be revealed.

Millions in rewards

Meanwhile, CDPQ's top bosses received nearly $12 million in bonuses.

According to our information, granting these bonuses is not very popular with licensees.

Still, these key executives offered themselves average compensation increases of 4.8% in 2023, despite mixed returns. One of them's wages increased by more than 12%.

The organization's CEO, Charles Emond, will earn $4.5 million in 2023, enjoying the largest compensation package in the organization.

“The bonuses for employees and managers are done every year, the reorganization is done once (…) and there will be economies of scale and in terms of our costs,” Kate Monvit explained.

Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard came to the defense of the bounty received by the CDPQ's big boss.

“We need a high-profile manager who is paid less than his peers who manage large pension funds. (…) It is a very competitive environment and it is very important to have a good manager to get the right return/risk.

The fund achieved a return of 7.2% in 2023.