Trudeau, Couillard defend Bombardier aid

BRAMPTON, Ont. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard were peppered with questions Thursday about their aid packages for Bombardier after the company’s senior executives saw their compensation rise by nearly 50 per cent last year.

After touring a Magna auto-parts facility in Brampton, Ont., Trudeau was asked several times how he can justify the $372.5-million loan package announced in February for Bombardier’s CSeries and Global 7000 aircraft programs.

“We respect the free market and the choices that companies will make,” Trudeau said. “But we also have a responsibility to ensure that the investments we make with taxpayers’ dollars are leading to good jobs and growth.”

Total compensation for the Montreal-based manufacturer’s top five executives and board chairman Pierre Beaudoin was $32.6 million US in 2016, up from $21.9 million the year before, according to a proxy circular ahead of Bombardier’s annual meeting on May 11.

CEO Alain Bellemare received $9.5 million, up from $6.4 million in 2015.

“Fundamentally, [executive compensation] concerns the company and its shareholders,” said Couillard, whose government provided a $1-billion investment in the CSeries in exchange for a 49.5 per cent stake. But he questioned, from an employee standpoint, whether the timing behind such raises and the message it sends was “well chosen.”

Quebec Economy Minister Dominique Anglade was less sanguine: “If I were Bombardier, I would think about the message I am sending the population today,” she said in question period.