Over $9.5 million in rewards in SAQ

The pandemic has not slowed bonuses to the Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ), which will pay $9.57 million to executives and employees for the 2020-2021 period. Remember that Loto-Québec and Hydro-Québec instead chose not to pay last year’s premiums.

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According to data obtained by the Access to Information Act, SAQ will pay bonuses to 1,347 employees. Executives and non-union employees will receive $8.49 million (+11.3%) and SAQ labor union employees will receive $1.08 million (+6.5%).

By comparison, in 2019-2020, $9.88 million was distributed in variable compensation across the foundation.

However, it should be noted that since 2020-2021, the Technical and Professional Employees Union can no longer receive bonuses due to the new employment contract. In 2019-2020, $1.23 million was paid out to technical and professional employees.

Store and Office Staff Union employees haven’t received performance bonuses either, and they have been for several years.

Five senior SAQ executives, over the past fiscal year, earned a total salary of $1.89 million, including $387,656 in bonuses. President and CEO Catherine Dagini received a salary of $434,980 and a bonus of $65,474.

• Listen to Michel Gerard’s economic column on QUB Radio:

inappropriate

According to the director of the Canadian Taxpayers Association of Quebec, Renaud Broussard, SAQ could have been embarrassed about bonuses, while many businesses have struggled with the pandemic.

It must be separated from the reality of the population. There are a lot of people who had to make financial sacrifices last year. Seeing a government monopoly doing this is totally inappropriate,” he argues.

Although restaurants and bars have been closed for months, SAQ made a profit of $1.22 billion in 2020-2021. Online sales in particular rose 130.7%.

SAQ disclosed the results of the last fiscal year. Sales were $3.59 billion, an increase of 2.9%. For profit, they shrunk by only $6.4 million.

« L’impact de la pandémie, particulièrement lié à la réduction des activites des restaurants et des bars, a généré un déplacement des ventes réalisées auprès des titulaires de permis vers le réseau des succurencesédés in unsocidésédés » et ‘status.

Sales exodus

In fact, sales to consumers increased by $361.1 million, while branches were considered essential services, and sales to licensees decreased by $321.9 million.

This is the ninth year in a row that SAQ has paid the Quebec government in ten-figure dividends, or $1.22 billion.

Driven by the pandemic, online sales were $96.9 million between April 2020 and March 2021. A year earlier, they were $42 million.

Supermarkets have also benefited from closing bars and restaurants. SAQ’s alcohol sales through its wholesale grocery network increased 11.6% to $392.3 million.

Over the past few months, the state-owned company billed its pandemic impacts at $39.6 million. This amount includes, among other things, costs for “replacement of absent employees and additional fees to ensure health and safety.”

• Listen to the economic column of Yves Daust, the Montreal newspaper’s director of finance, on QUB Radio:

Summary of the fiscal year 2020-2021 for the quality certificate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

• Dividend: $1.22 billion
• sales: 3.59 billion dollars
• Online sales: $96.9 million (+ 130.7%)
• Sales via the wholesalers network – groceries: 392.3 million dollars
• Pandemic bill: $39.6 million

Source: Société des alcools du Québec