It’s been a rough start to 2023 for more than 1,000 Canadians affected by layoffs announced by Canadian and American companies this month. There have also been further unannounced layoffs reported by media.
Most of the announced cuts have been among tech companies and follow an earlier wave of downsizing and restructuring announcements in late 2022 by heavyweights such as Meta, Amazon and Lyft.
Layoffs.fyi, a layoff tracker launched by entrepreneur Roger Lee during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports 155,126 tech jobs globally were lost in 2022, with another 55,324 announced since the start of 2023.
Here are some of the mass layoffs affecting Canadians so far in 2023.
HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY
Hudson’s Bay Company confirmed to The Canadian Press this week that it plans to lay off two per cent of its total workforce, or an estimated 250 employees.
The Canadian Press reports the layoffs will impact largely Canadian corporate roles at The Bay and Hudson’s Bay, the retailer’s online and brick-and-mortar operations, respectively.
POSTMEDIA
Less than a week after newspaper publisher Postmedia Network Corp. said it was grappling with “economic contraction,” The Canadian Press reports the company is set to lay off 11 per cent of its editorial staff.
Postmedia employees were reportedly informed of the layoffs during a town hall meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
In an audio recording from that meeting obtained by The Canadian Press, Gerry Nott, acting senior vice-president of editorial content, said the cuts would impact all of the company’s publications with the exception of Brunswick News and Postmedia Editorial Services, as they have already been downsized.
Postmedia owns publications across Canada, including the National Post, Vancouver Sun and Calgary Herald, and employs about 650 journalists.
SALESFORCE
Canadian law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP reports Salesforce, an American business software company, plans to lay off 10 per cent of its workforce. Canadian startup news website Betakit reports some of those layoffs will affect Canadians, but does not say how many.
BENEVITY
Canadian tech firm Benevity announced in a notice to its employees on Jan. 18 that it would eliminate 137 jobs, or 14 per cent of its workforce.
CEO Kelly Schmitt explained the company is currently “overbuilt for current market conditions,” necessitating the job cuts.
“We have always run the company for growth, both to maximize the social impact we could help to drive as an early B Corporation, and also to meet the market opportunity in front of us,” she wrote in the notice to staff.
“In response to that demand, we significantly increased the size of our team, but over the last nine months, macroeconomic conditions have changed dramatically, and the demand we expected to see has slowed significantly.”
AMAZON, MAYBE
In a memo to employees published Jan. 4, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the company would eliminate another round of jobs following mass layoffs in November. Between the two layoffs, the company plans to eliminate 18,000 jobs.
Jassy said the majority of layoffs would be in Amazon Stores and PXT organizations, but did not say how many Canadians, if any, would be affected.
“These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure,” he wrote.
OTHERS
According to Layoffs.fyi, these Canadian companies have also cut jobs this month:
Montreal-based Lightspeed Commerce laid off 300 employees, or 10 per cent of its staff.
Canadian online car retailer Clutch laid off 148 employees. Betakit.com reports that accounts for roughly 65 per cent of the company’s staff.
Vancouver-based software company Thinkific laid off 76 employees, or 19 per cent of their workforce.
Social media marketing software firm Hootsuite laid off 70 employees, or seven per cent of its workforce.
Toronto-based delivery startup GoBolt laid off 55 employees, or five per cent of its workforce.
Canadian lending firm Clearco laid off 50 employees, or 30 per cent of its workforce.
Toronto-based software company PartnerStack laid off approximately 20 per cent of its staff.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
