I work at CAE, a company in Montreal which makes flight simulators, a large portion of which are for military use. On February 17th this year, Mark Carney visited my workplace to announce the launch of the Defence Industrial Strategy. This strategy is simply the pouring of hundreds of billions of dollars into military spending. Invoking the new unstable world situation, Carney said that the buildup of the Canadian military was necessary. However, he made a point of saying that this will also bolster the economy and create over 100,000 new jobs.
Carney highlighted that the new strategy included an 85% increase to government investment in military research and development, which he said CAE is a global leader in. One would think then that the company would be one of the places where these supposed new jobs were being created. But it’s the opposite that’s taking place!
Two weeks ago, Matthew Bromberg, the company’s CEO, announced hundreds of layoffs. In the group that I work in, over a third of my coworkers were fired. This was done seemingly without any thought put into it, with no plan for who is going to do the work of the people who have been fired. Our new boss talked about how our group of 15 will have to find a way to do all of the work that up until last week was being done by over 20 of us! In a Freudian slip, he said that we’re going to have to be as focused and determined as possible for the 10 (!) hours we spend at work every day. Instead of creating new jobs, our bosses are squeezing us even harder.
It’s clear to me that Carney’s military spending isn’t going to fix the economy. If these are the conditions in a workplace that’s supposed to be benefiting from this new strategy, it’s going to be even worse elsewhere.
– Anonymous
