At least 68 publicly traded Canadian companies have continued to pay out billions of dollars in dividends to their shareholders while receiving government assistance in the form of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.
A Financial Post analysis found that the 68 companies received at least $1.03 billion in CEWS, a subsidy introduced by the federal government in April to help companies that had seen significant drops in their revenue cover payroll costs and avoid laying off workers. While they were receiving government assistance over the past two quarters, the very same companies paid out more than $5 billion in dividends.
Of the 68 companies, 11 either introduced a dividend or hiked existing dividends in the quarters that they received CEWS. The Post also found that 17 firms either introduced share repurchase programs or actively bought back millions of dollars in shares in this same time frame. Some companies such as Leon’s Furniture Ltd., Titanium Transportation Group Inc., Secure Energy Services Inc. and Yellow Pages Ltd. did both.
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