Pension, union funds won’t back Bombardier boss

Two of Quebec’s largest institutional investors say they won’t support the re-election of Bombardier executive chairman Pierre Beaudoin, dealing a fresh blow against the manufacturer’s controlling family just ahead of its annual meeting Thursday.

In a letter posted on its website Monday, the Caisse de depot pension fund manager said it has also voted against Bombardier’s plan to award Beaudoin and its top five executives compensation hikes of nearly 50 per cent. These socalled say-on-pay votes are nonbinding.

The Bombardier family, which includes Beaudoin, controls the plane and train maker through multiple-voting shares.

The Quebec Federation of Labour’s Solidarity Fund said it voted its 21.2 million shares against Beaudoin and the compensation policy. It will also oppose the re-election of board members who sit on the human resources committee. After protests, Bombardier said it was postponing the compensation plan by a year until 2020. The Caisse said the move to delay the payments was welcome, but it’s concerned the decision to increase executive compensation was made in the first place.

While the Caisse said it supports CEO Alain Bellemare’s turnaround plan for Bombardier, it believes the original compensation proposal reflects a “lapse of governance” at the board level.