VIA Rail paid millions in bonuses to employees, even as it claimed to be going through financial difficulties, when lobbying cabinet for a COVID bailout. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) yesterday disclosed Access To Information records showing 650 VIA managers received bonuses at taxpayers’ expense, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“If VIA Rail has enough money laying around to hand out millions in bonuses and raises during a pandemic, then it shouldn’t be relying on taxpayer bailouts,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF. “Executives shouldn’t receive lavish pay when VIA hemorrhages money.”.Records showed in 2020 VIA paid a total $6,434,642 in bonuses to 650 managers, the equivalent of $9,899 each. That year an additional $1,430,703 in pay raises were approved for non-union managers..No bonuses were paid in 2021. However another $1,711,780 in raises was paid to 638 managers in 2021. The figures for 2022 were unavailable..VIA at the time laid off 28% of its workforce from 3,308 to 2,370 employees, reduced train service and confirmed operating losses of $415.8 million in 2020 and $370.5 million in 2021. The railway in an updated Corporate Plan predicted this year’s operating deficit will run to $411 million..“VIA shouldn’t be giving its employees bonuses and raises while it’s losing money,” said the CTF's Terrazzano. The bonus payments were made at the same time VIA successfully lobbied cabinet for “a huge taxpayer bailout,” he added..Cabinet last February 16 budgeted a $187.5 million pandemic bailout for the Crown railway. “VIA Rail has managed its expenses responsibly,” Philippe Cannon, spokesperson for the railway, said at the time. “VIA Rail continuously reduced its total operation expenses.”.The railway did not disclose its bonuses at the time. VIA in an earlier Corporate Plan tabled in Parliament a year ago said it faced “drastic cuts.”.“Without sufficient and timely funding, VIA Rail would be obliged to make drastic cuts, which is a significant business and reputational risk exacerbated by layoffs, significant restructuring costs including employment security and severance payments and start-up costs when the service resumes,” wrote managers..Corporate records show bonuses for the railway’s $413,500-a year CEO range up to 28% annually. Bonuses for other $327,984-a year executives range from 35 to 50% in addition to $24,000 in annual perks like sports club memberships..Pandemic travel bans cut railway revenues 98% at the peak of quarantine restrictions. Management said 2020 ridership fell from 5.5 million passengers to 1.1 million, “one of the most challenging years” in VIA history..Parliament created VIA Rail in 1978 as a passenger service formerly run by Canadian National Railway, then a Crown corporation. Critics for years questioned ongoing subsidies for VIA..“The airline system is not subsidized,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told a 2016 hearing of the House of Commons transport committee. “In fact it is a net contributor to the Government of Canada. Airlines pay corporate taxes, fuel taxes, airport rents. The passenger pays for the cost of security.”.“Why should taxpayers be subsidizing a money-losing mode of transportation at the expense of a money-generating mode of transportation?” asked Poilievre. “That’s just the reality.”
