Employees at Canada’s government-funded housing agency received nearly $ 27 million in bonuses in 2022, according to a new report.
The Canadian Taxpayer Federation (CTF) obtained documents through access to Information requests, revealing that the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has distributed $ 75 million in bonuses since the beginning of 2020.
Internal CMHC filings showed that last year, 2,292 employees received a combined bonus of $ 26,867,455. That’s over 90% of Crown corporation staff with an average bonus of $ 11,700 per person.
CMHC gives bonuses, big cheques and rich executive pay. All the time countless Canadians give up on the dream of owning a home.
They fail in their work. You pay for their bonus. Sound right? pic.twitter.com/YuqWgMRjia
– Franco Terrazzano (@franco_nomics) July 25, 2023
“If the CMHC’s number one goal is housing affordability, then it makes no sense to shower employees with bonuses and balloon its C-suite compensation while Canadians can’t afford to buy a home,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano in the report. “This is another example of the government rewarding failure with taxpayer-funded bonuses.”
In an emailed statement to Daily Hive, a CMHC spokesperson says the organization has commercial, profit-generating operations like its mortgage insurance business.
“Since 2017, CMHC has returned $ 18.525 billion in the form of dividend payments to our shareholder, the Government of Canada,” the spokesperson said. “This is in addition to our public mandate to provide housing programs on behalf of and with funding from the Government of Canada.”
The corporation added that the bonuses are important to help it retain the employees needed to carry out its work and deliver programs to Canadians. This includes programs that support affordable and social housing.
“CMHC is committed to recognizing employee performance and contributions to the organization through cash compensation, which includes a mix of base pay and incentive pay,” the spokesperson explained.
“The pay rate for CMHC employees is competitive and reflects the current labor market conditions. Bonuses are based on the performance of an individual employee according to his roles and responsibilities.”
The CTF reported that the average salary of nine agency executives rose to $ 697,667 in 2022. CMHC says this is wrong.
“The total compensation stated in the ATIP claim is $ 4,417,647, which is significantly different from the total in the CTF chart, which was $ 6,279,000,” the spokesperson explained. Therefore, the average compensation stated in the article is incorrect and should be $ 441,765.”
There are now 931 CMHC employees who receive more than $ 100,000 in annual salary, according to documents obtained by CTF.
In the past five years, the number of CMHC employees receiving six-figure annual salaries has increased by 199 employees or 27%.
The CTF is condemning these “taxpayer-funded bonuses” given Canada’s housing affordability crisis.
In Vancouver, a recent report found that it would take an annual household income of more than $ 600,000 to afford a 1,500-square-foot home.
Prospective home buyers in Calgary also need deep pockets to afford a home.
And this report from March revealed that many Canadians think they will never own a home at this rate.
“In the real world, when you fail at your job, you can get the boot, not a big bonus,” Terrazzano said. “Canadians need more homes, not more paid government executives and bureaucrats who get big bonuses.”
In the 2023 budget, the federal government said it plans to work with Crown corporations to “ensure they achieve comparable spending cuts, which would amount to about $ 1.3 billion over four years starting in 2024-25 and $ 450 million in the next.”
CTF thinks that Ottapora should do more.
“Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland should find savings by ending bonuses at failed Crown corporations and getting some air out of CMHC’s ballooning c-suite,” Terrazzano said.
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