The biggest employers in the country are being treated like pariahs by the political class
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Right now in Ottawa, being a corporate CEO gets you about as much respect as being a convicted murderer.
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In official Ottawa, CEOs like Galen Weston at Loblaws or Mirko Bibic at Bell Canada Enterprises, have become the most hated individuals among the political class, scorned by all parties.
It speaks to a rise in angry populism being played by all parties on this front and warns of dangerous policy lurking like the NDP’s demand for an excess profits tax.
On Thursday, Bibic appeared before the Commons Heritage Committee to be questioned about recent layoffs at Bell. Questioned is too kind a word – he was beaten like a piñata for two hours.
It wasn’t a good look for Bibic who appeared defensive at times – understandably so. And it wasn’t a good look for the MPs on the committee who came across as unhinged for most of the proceedings.
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The hearing was supposed to be about Bell’s recent decision to lay off 4,800 workers, including about 450 employees at the company’s subsidiary Bell Media. Instead, it turned into a grievance session where MPs took Bibic to task for everything from firing people illegally, cancelling noon-hour newscasts, the size of his salary and how much his company spends on American programming.
“You have not been able to answer a single one of my questions directly today,” Conservative MP Rachel Thomas said.
Of course, Thomas didn’t want Bibic to answer questions, she wanted to berate him, as did all the other MPs from all parties on the committee. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, not normally a member of the committee, appeared to berate Bibic on a number of fronts, including being profitable while laying off staff.
“You could have chosen to give consumers a break and make it more affordable for cellphone and internet fees, particularly when people are struggling with the cost of living, but you chose greed – how do you justify that,” Singh said while grilling Bibic about his company’s dividend.
Bell issued $3.7 billion in dividend payments last year, which has politicians, particularly Singh, outraged. This is another example of Singh’s economic ignorance – he should be happy for that dividend payment, not angry.
Those payments are funding the retirements of Canadians.
Bell is one of the most widely held stocks in Canada and a staple of the pension funds and mutual funds that fund retirements across the country. There isn’t some man in a top hat and monocle collecting all those dividends, it’s people who are retired or saving for retirement who get those dividends – which is why pension and mutual funds buy the stock.
But Singh is also the man pushing the financially illiterate idea that we need an excess profits tax.
This idea, which will only further weaken the Canadian economy, is likely going to be in next week’s budget as part of the coalition agreement signed between Trudeau and Singh. If you think the layoffs at Bell and other companies are bad now, wait until this tax kicks in and companies simply stop investing in Canada.
I’m not here to defend Bell, or Bell Media, I have my own scars from working there. And as for Bibic, I’ve never met the man. The attitude taking over Ottawa though, across the political spectrum, that says successful companies must be punished until they aren’t successful, is a dangerous one.
We need politicians who want to enact policies that will help companies grow and succeed. This was the heritage committee speaking to the CEO of a company that owns major media properties across the country and they didn’t talk to him about policy to help the industry stabilize, grow and prosper – they asked gotcha questions to generate social media clips.
Canadians deserve better out of Ottawa, but they shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for that time to come.
blilley@postmedia.com
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