There was no $15 million saved by laying off 180 employees. Period.
First of all $15 million divided by 180 equals about $80,000 per employee. 90% of the laid off staff are production workers - either greenhouse or packaging - which are low skill, low pay and not all positions are full time.
While there are some higher paid skill positons and adminstartive/management staff - there's no way Zenabis, 48N or Hexo pays production workers $80,000/year.
For the sake of argument though, assuming $20/hour (which is high) and full time (about 2,000 hours annually) - that's only $40,000 per employee per year.
180 staff x $40,000 = $7.2 million.
As for severance, NB Labour Standards requires 2 weeks paid notice for workers with under 5 years service - given the high rate of turnover in this sector, added to the length of time the companies have actually been in operation - the vast majority of staff would have less than 5 years service.
80 hours x $20/hour x 180 employees = $ 288,000 total severance. Some may have higher and some may have severance clauses in their employment contracts - but at most, severance would be no more than $500,000.
Scott Cooper must be relying on Trent McDonald for his numbers