Quebec Crown corporations were under the close inspection of Institut de la Statistique du Québec seeking answers regarding their practices. A new report issued information on the remuneration Crown employees receive and the way it compares to government agencies. As it revealed, the discrepancy between their respective wages, various benefits, and working schedule amounts to nearly 25 percent.
According to the information issued with the report, Crown corporations in the province pay larger total compensation than the public sector employees of the government administration. The comparison covers 2019 solely but it spreads across sectors to the likes of the public sector, the private one, universities, the municipal government, as well as unionized workers across the province. It appears that the municipal government pays 35 percent better than respective positions in the provincial administration.
Institut de la Statistique du Québec Issues Info
As many as 63 of the benchmark positions receive worse payment than the municipal government sector. When it comes to wages this difference equates to 23.5 percent. Caroline Senneville, senior vice-president at the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux, reflected on the discoveries issued in the report. She pointed out that this difference stems from the fact that provincial operation has its level of stringency different from municipal workers’ experience.
Loto-Québec was also among the Crown corporations reviewed by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec. Crown corporations such as Hydro-Québec, Loto-Québec, Télé-Québec, and Société des Alcools du Québec are owned by the Sovereign of Canada. They are obliged to report via the Minister of the Crown, giving them a certain freedom in comparison to government departments. For quite some time they have been perceived as rather protected from oversight.
This essentially means that they have the freedom to conduct their work and offer their employees salaries higher than the ones offered by the government. Loto-Québec pays 24.9-percent higher total compensation than the administration workers to the likes of people working in the health field, Quebec’s education, among others.
Report Stirs the Pot
The province has about 60 Crown corporations, but Loto-Québec’s employees have been on the radar for several months now. This spring Quebec’s auditor-general Guylaine Leclerc introduced the findings of her team’s regular 2019-2020 report, revealing that Crown corporations give away millions of Canadian dollars in the form of various bonuses. The report shows that Crown corporations want to remain competitive in an ever-changing field, which results in higher wages for their employees.
The report also highlighted severance packages for the employees ready to exit the structure of a Crown corporation that have swollen to CA$3.5 million in the past couple of years. Some of the bonuses amount to nearly CA$50,000 per individual. What should also be taken into account is that Loto-Québec does not compete directly with private companies or casino operators, qualifying it as a monopoly in the local field.
This is considered one of the main reasons why transparency should be improved. Meanwhile, Ontario’s government is also looking into Ontario lottery and Gaming Corporation’s spending habits, as Premier Doug Ford wants to see fair conditions and operation with taxpayers’ cash. A team of auditors is about to examine the Crown corporation’s expenses.
