Canadian cannabis companies qualified for more than CAD $180 million in federal government subsidies designed to retain jobs through the pandemic, but that didn’t save more than 6,000 jobs that have been lost since early 2020, according to a report by MJBizDaily.
The methodology
MJ Biz compared employee numbers recorded at the end of 2019 in regulatory filings from 50 of Canada’s largest licensed companies to the most recent filings. Six thousand jobs represents a staggering 30 per cent of the total 20,000 jobs recorded in the analysis, with most of layoffs occurring in 2020.
Job losses weren’t experienced across all 50 companies. In fact, four LPs — Canopy, Aurora, Sundial and Tilray (pre-Aphria merger) made up nearly three-quarters of them. Of the 50 companies they looked at, 25 saw job numbers go up or remain consistent.
Mind-boggling math
Perhaps most disturbingly, the analysis shows that the companies who laid off workers received most of the federal government grants — about $141 million of the $180 million doled out largely through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, a fund designed to help companies retain employees.
What’s more: “The job losses also have come at a time when annual executive compensation at certain cannabis companies jumped, in some cases to levels exceeding annual revenue,” reads the report.
A glimmer of hope
When it came to job number increases since the end of 2019, four companies stood out: High Tide added 342 jobs, Pure Sunfarms added 266 and the Valens Co. saw an increase of 145. Aphria, pre-merger with Tilray, added 150 jobs.
