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One year after Harper government made $75 billion in taxpayer-backed money available to help banks through the global economic crisis.
Ottawa (17 Dec. 2009) - The CEOs of Canada's chartered banks are helping themselves to $8.3 billion in bonuses one year after taxpayers made over $75 billion available to help the banks cope with the global recession.
Meanwhile, the Harper Conservatives, who orchestrated the taxpayer-backed financing, remain quiet while the obscene CEO money-grab takes place.
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“People in my riding and Canadians from coast to coast to coast are struggling under the pressures of the recession,” says New Democrat Party industry critic Brian Masse, who represents Windsor West in the Commons.
“Meanwhile these CEOs are pocketing billions in bonuses. It’s just not right”
The $8.3 billion tally for the CEOs of Canada's six largest banks was reported last week by the Toronto Globe and Mail. Their haul is up 18% over 2008 and 4% higher than their pre-recession bonanza of 2007.
Since the fall of 2008, the federal Conservatives made over $75 billion available to the banks to help them get through the recession. The main result has been to give them a major increase in their own profitability.
However, the Harper government is doing nothing at all to restrain the greed of the bankers, unlike the U.S.and Britain.
The U.S. government has already stepped in to put controls on executive compensation and the British government has introduced a one-time 50% tax on all bankers’ bonuses above 25,000 pounds ($42,790).
“Now is the time to reign in excessive executive bonuses for companies that have received public assistance from hardworking Canadians,” says Masse. “Governments in the United States and the U.K. have already stepped up and brought in restrictions on this type of compensation. Now the Harper Conservatives need to do the same.”
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