aerospace – mackaycartoons

Saturday February 9, 2019

February 16, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 9, 2019

Trudeau is lending credibility to SNC-Lavalin pressure allegations

It’s been a burning question for weeks in politics — what did Jody Wilson-Raybould do to get bounced out of her job as justice minister in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet?

October 13, 2016

Well, now we know one theory about her firing offence: an alleged refusal to do a legal favour for SNC-Lavalin, the Quebec firm with long and lucrative ties to the federal Liberals.

And so, the once-burning question in the capital’s chattering corridors of power is now a flaming bag of trouble sitting on the very doorstep of the Prime Minister’s Office. In the process, the biggest victim of Trudeau’s relatively minor cabinet shuffle last month is now perceived as its loudest whistleblower, whether she embraces that new role or not.

Pez Prime Minister

Not that Wilson-Raybould, now veterans affairs minister, was particularly loud on Thursday. In fact, she didn’t have a thing to say in the wake of the Globe and Mail’s explosive story of how the former justice minister reportedly stood in the way of a deal to let SNC-Lavalin detour around prosecutions that could have blocked it from receiving government contracts for years to come.

Wilson-Raybould’s silence, however, was far louder than the prime minister’s carefully chosen words of denial, about how his office had not “directed” the former minister to give the go-ahead to what’s known as a “deferred prosecution” of SNC-Lavalin.

December 14, 2016

Her nondenial denial, first reported in The Globe and not withdrawn on Thursday, fairly yelled in support of spirited opposition cries in support of her alleged refusal to play ball with the PMO and its cosy corporate friend in Quebec. Wilson-Raybould is now being cast as a hero who “spoke truth to power” — even if, technically speaking, it was more like a whisper to a newspaper.

Pro tip: “No comment” only works as a clever misdirection in fictionalized political journalism. In real life, it is often regarded as confirmation. That’s certainly how Wilson-Raybould’s failure to comment was being interpreted in government and opposition circles on Thursday.

Speaking of no comment, Trudeau hasn’t really explained why he plucked Wilson-Raybould out of her post as Canada’s first Indigenous justice minister and put her in charge of a department where many political careers go to die. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

Update, Sept. 11, 2021…

The Prime Minister seemed to be listening intently. “I never directed,” he said, referring to interfering in my role as the attorney-general in relation to the SNC-Lavalin prosecution. His public lines started coming, which were designed to deny responsibility and culpability. There are differences between pressure and direction, he emphasized. We talked about our soon to be infamous meeting with the clerk of the Privy Council on September 17, 2018, where I had asked him directly, when SNC-Lavalin was raised, “Are you politically interfering with my role, my decision as the attorney-general? I would strongly advise against it.” He repeated in that airport room that I was not shuffled from being minister of justice and attorney-general because of SNC-Lavalin. To which I thought to myself, Oh yes, I remember Scott Brison resigned from Treasury, so, of course, you then had to move the attorney-general and two other ministers and elevate two MPs to fill one spot. Good grief. (Excerpt printed in the Globe & Mail, from ‘Indian’ in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power by Jody Wilson-Raybould)

Tuesday November 13, 2018

November 20, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

November 13, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 13, 2018

The good, the bad and the ugly of corporate welfare

Federal government investment in private business — disdainfully called “corporate welfare” by critics — can raise the blood pressure of even the most Zen taxpayer. Consider:

April 4, 2017

Last month, Ottawa wrote off a loan and other subsidies granted to Chrysler for $2.6 billion. The interest is also in the wind. Or how about the Ontario government’s $220 million investment in Toyota to create some 450 jobs (which works out to a $488,888 subsidy per job). And then, of course, there is Bombardier, the grandmother of all corporate welfare recipients.

The Quebec-based transportation company got its first government handout in the mid-1960s. By now, depending on who you believe, Bombardier has received something like $3.7 billion from Canadian taxpayers. And just to add insult to injury, the company isn’t exactly prospering.

October 13, 2016

Last week, it announced it was cutting 5,000 jobs, including 500 in Ontario, and it sold off one of its aircraft divisions. It also announced a new contract to provide rail cars to the City of Montreal, but that good news didn’t offset bad news about its stubborn corporate debt. Analysts are again speculating that Bombardier’s turnaround may be wishful thinking, and its share prices took the expected nosedive at that news.

Most galling is the reality that those billions, just like the billions in Chrysler bailout money Ottawa just wrote off, are never coming back to public coffers.

February 18, 2016

What can we do, other than get all red in the face and grind our collective teeth? It’s not like you can vote for a different party to avoid these so-called investments. All parties do them, in Bombardier’s case, pretty much equally.

Or, we can try and do what makes sense but is typically very hard for average taxpayers struggling to get by in this challenging world — look at the big picture, and look at it over time, not in the moment.

First, so-called corporate welfare is far from new. It goes back as far as the days when Canadian railroads were getting royal treatment in the form of prime pieces of real estate. But what if, back in the ’60s, the government of the day had said no to Bombardier and set the tone for the future? (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday April 4, 2017

April 3, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 4, 2017

Bombardier CEO admits ‘bad job’ communicating pay increases

Bombardier did “a bad job” explaining its decision to raise executive compensation, but the company has listened to the public and is now ready to turn the page, CEO Alain Bellemare says.

October 13, 2016

In an interview, Bellemare acknowledged that Bombardier (TSX:BBD.B) underestimated the anger that would erupt over the pay hikes, which were to come as it was issuing pink slips to thousands of employees while receiving federal and provincial assistance.

“It’s all on us at Bombardier,” he said. “The message here is we did listen, we paid attention, we care.”

Bellemare announced late Sunday that he has asked Bombardier’s board of directors to delay the payment of more than half of this year’s total planned compensation for six executive officers, including himself, by one year — until 2020. The compensation would be paid as long as certain objectives that haven’t changed are met by that time.

The remuneration is required to attract top talent to turn around the company’s fortunes, which in turn benefits employees and shareholders alike, he said.

Last week, the company issued a proxy circular showing that Bellemare and five others were in line for a nearly 50 per cent increase in compensation, most of which was to be granted in 2019. The disclosure stoked fierce outcry that lasted for days, including a weekend protest at Bombardier’s headquarters in Montreal.

Federal Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said Monday that like many Canadians, he was disappointed by the Bombardier executive pay raises, but it seems like the company is trying to address those concerns.

“Clearly there’s a recognition that they need to make changes, that they need to approach this differently,” Bains said, striking a different message from the one offered by the prime minister last week.

Asked how he can justify the $372.5-million federal loan for Bombardier’s CSeries and Global 7000 aircraft programs, Justin Trudeau said his government respects “the free market and the choices that companies will make.” (Source: CTV news)

Thursday October 13, 2016

October 12, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 13, 2016

Federal Liberals signal desire for ‘meaningful investment’ in Bombardier

The federal government investing in aerospace giant Bombardier is not a matter of if but how, Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said Tuesday.

“We want to be a partner,” Bains said after announcing up to $54 million in funds for a Bombardier-led aerospace-research consortium.

“We want to find a solution and we want to continue to make meaningful investments. We want to be a partner, we are at the table, we want to find a solution. It’s not a matter of if but how we want to make the investment.”

His comments are the clearest the Liberals have been to date regarding whether they’ll accept the Montreal-based company’s request for $1 billion in federal funding.

In early September, Bombardier (TSX:BBD.B) received the second of two instalments of US$500 million from the Quebec government.

Quebec now owns 49.5 per cent of a new limited partnership of the CSeries aircraft program, including larger versions of the plane beyond the CS100 and CS300 should they be developed.

Bains wouldn’t give details as to exactly how much Ottawa will invest or where the money will be targeted.

He did reiterate the conditions his government will place on any future funding.

Ottawa wants Bombardier to keep its head office and the jobs connected to its research and development activities in the country, he said. (Source: Financial Post)

Published in the Leader-Post (Regina, Sask)