In this first full year under the leadership of Charles Émond, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec showed overwhelming generosity towards its employees in 2021 when it granted them a compensation increase of around 25 %.
You read that right TWENTY-FIVE percent increase, no less!
And to say that the employees of the public service and the parapublic service, whose pension fund is among the largest depositors of the Fund, must be satisfied with a salary increase of 6.2% for the three years from 2020 to 2023.
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The CEO of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec, Charles Émond
The 25% increase in compensation at the Caisse caused the “Salaries and benefits” expense to jump to $510 million.
This is $119 million more than in 2020, the year Charles Émond replaced former CEO Michael Sabia as of February 1.
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POOR LEGAULT!
The average compensation of the 1,454 Caisse employees in 2021 amounted to $350,756 per head, or $69,664 more than in 2020.
By way of comparison, I remind you that François Legault, who still holds the most important position in the state as Premier of Quebec, earned a salary of $206,000 less dust last year!
No doubt that he, François Legault, is underpaid. But is it reasonable that a state-owned company like the Caisse dare to increase the remuneration of its employees by 25% during the pandemic year 2021? No !
We are talking here about an average per employee of the Caisse of $350,756, which obviously suggests that several employees earn less, others earn more and some earn a lot more.
THE SENIOR MANAGEMENT PACTOLUS
It is this month, when the Caisse’s 2021 annual report is published, that we will know how much CEO Charles Émond and his senior management have collected in salaries, performance bonuses and benefits during course of the last year.
In 2020, while the Caisse posted a “modest” return of 7.7%, or some 1.5% below its own benchmark index, CEO Émond and his five highest-paid senior executives shared compensation total of $12.5 million.
Charles Émond alone received a total compensation of $3.45 million.
I can’t wait to see how much his compensation will be for 2021, when the Caisse posted a return of 13.5%, or 2.8 percentage points more than its benchmark index.
CASH EXPLANATIONS
Here is the question I asked the Caisse regarding the 25% increase in the remuneration of its employees: “According to your CEO Charles Émond, what are the reasons that justify these large increases in remuneration? »
Response from the Caisse’s media relations department:
“The main reason is rising yields; as mentioned, in 2021, the CDPQ posted its best absolute and relative returns since 2010 and produced more than $10 billion in added value. Indeed, the increase in yields has a significant impact on the calculation of the variable remuneration of employees in the investment sectors. »
“The compensation setting process follows a rigorous process [incluant l’approbation par le conseil d’administration] and again, full details are presented in the Annual Report. »
“Our performance compares favorably in the industry. We had already discussed this subject recently. »
Regarding precisely the Caisse’s performance of 13.5% in 2021, I would like to remind you that it is still below the median (13.83%) of the managers of diversified funds that was reported in the study Pension Fund Manager Mutual Fund Performance Universedu groupe LifeWorks.
Average salary by employee at the CDPQ
2021 : 350 756 $
2020 : 281 092 $
2019 : 315 175 $
2018 : 320 034 $
2017 : 302 836 $
Source: Caisse de depot et placement du Québec