QUESTION PERIOD — International Trade
Export Development Canada
October 1, 2024
Leader, my question is a follow-up to a question posed by Senator Plett last Thursday concerning $176 million in bonuses paid out at Export Development Canada, or EDC, since 2019. You seemed to indicate in your response that you needed further information about these bonuses before answering.
During much of the time EDC handed out these bonuses, they also contracted out the entire Canada Emergency Business Account, or CEBA, loans program for small businesses. In 2020, the year the CEBA program was created, EDC paid out $24 million in bonuses. In 2023, the year we learned consulting firm Accenture was actually running the CEBA program, EDC bonuses reached almost $41 million. They went up.
Leader, in this context, were these bonuses justified?
In the world that some of you live in, complicated questions can be reduced, however misleadingly and unhelpfully, but I am going to answer more honestly and accurately.
Bonuses that are paid to workers, whether at EDC or in private enterprise, are one feature in the compensation packages that employers provide, and each and every individual — subject to terms that include salary components, bonus components and whatever else they may include — goes through a process of evaluation and then decisions are made. It is simply impossible, even if it were appropriate, to comment on the performance of the individuals at issue or how those bonuses were calculated, much less whether in a blanket way —
Senator Martin.
When considering these bonuses, a clear fact that is important to remember is that EDC never proactively disclosed these contracts worth over $200 million.
This entire mess is currently under investigation by the Auditor General.
Leader, could you make inquires and tell us whether EDC is on track to hand out $40 million in bonuses again this year, or higher?
Thank you for your question. To the extent that this matter is being looked at by the Auditor General, I think we would all benefit from the Auditor General’s investigation and the report. I look forward to that with interest.
