La Presse![url=LAIN BELLEMARE "QUEBECKERS HAVE BEEN RIGHT TO BE ANGRY" JEAN-PHILIPPE DECARIE THE PRESS It was at the end of a busy morning in which he had just toured almost all the Quebec media that Alain Bellemare received me yesterday at Bombardier headquarters. Far from being bogged down with having to justify again the method of remuneration of the senior management of Bombardier, the CEO has delivered. "Quebeckers were right to be angry with us, we have misrepresented our position in relation to the US $ 1 billion investment that the government had just made in the C Series," agrees Alain Bellemare. The CEO admits that Bombardier showed a lack of sensitivity towards Quebeckers compared to the financial support that the company had obtained a year earlier from all taxpayers in the province. "Quebeckers are proud of Bombardier, and suddenly they have the impression that senior management will increase their remuneration by 50% by drawing from the $ 1 billion of public funds that Quebec has just invested. I understand their reaction very well. We have not been sensitive to the impact that this may have. "I am a Quebecer and I returned to work at Bombardier because it is the biggest industrial company in Canada and it is a multinational company of which I am very proud," continues the CEO. A COMPLEX CIRCULAR Alain Bellemare goes back to the fact that the company misinformed the information contained in the circular to shareholders, in which it was announced that the six senior executives of Bombardier would receive a 48% increase in their remuneration by 2016 To 2015. "It was not explained that part of the increase was related to the fact that five of the six executives had taken office in 2015, but it was mostly not explained that this increase would be paid only in three years and Condition that the company achieves very precise financial and operational objectives ", adds the CEO. As we know, Alain Bellemare announced Sunday evening that the payment of premiums to executives was postponed for an additional year, in 2020, and only if Bombardier's revenues - which are 16 billion US - cross the mark of 25 billion US, that the company has returned to profitability and that it has begun repaying its debt. "It should also be noted that 50% of all executive compensation - not just bonuses - is conditional on the achievement of specific financial objectives. In my case, 60% of my remuneration is conditional on the attainment of pre-established objectives. "If you make money in four years, it is because all the shareholders have made it and the [Quebec taxpayers] have done so. It is a compensation aligned with the interests of shareholders, "insists Alain Bellemare. LIKE THE CANADIAN The CEO of Bombardier is well aware that the crisis that has been raging since last Wednesday is still far from being resolved, as evidenced by the motion that the opposition parties in Quebec intend to table today to demand the cancellation of any Of Bombardier's executive officers. "For Quebeckers, Bombardier is like the Montreal Canadiens. We are proud of them and we incentives when it's fine, but we are able to hate them when things go wrong, "explains Alain Bellemare. The CEO believes that the current crisis has made him understand that the company will henceforth observe a very high and constant sensitivity with regard to the public component of its shareholding. "Next year, when we issue our circular to shareholders, we will be very careful to include a public explanatory statement, and I will undertake to meet with the leaders of all political parties for their Explain the exact scope of each measure. " - Alain Bellemare As for those who blame Bombardier for increasing its executive compensation (even if it is conditional) while the company is in the process of completing an attrition program of 14,500 jobs, Alain Bellemare explains that " Company had to act. "We had to realign our costs to generate sustainable liquidity levels. There was no choice but to reduce our workforce to meet our financial goals. "We forget it, but in 2015, we did not just get $ 1 billion from Quebec City. We issued a US $ 1 billion equity issue, contracted US $ 2 billion in bank loans, and we sold 30% of our Transportation division to the Caisse for US $ 1.5 billion, "the CEO said. In this regard, Alain Bellemare points out that it was Bombardier who preferred to join the Caisse de dpt et placement as a partner in Bombardier Transportation because the company wanted a partner who was close to it and understood its operations. "There was a call for tenders, and there were two finalists. We preferred the Caisse to an investment bank because we wanted to associate with an institution close to us, "says the CEO. Alain Bellemare knows, however, that the crisis is far from over and that it will take time, patience and a better dialogue so that it fades away. But it will be above all the successes of the C Series, the Global 7000 and its Transport division that will best heal the wounds of today. This text from La Presse + is a copy in web format. Consult it for free in an interactive version][/url]