I am jumping on the CEWS-shaming bandwagon, thanks to a tip by an alert reader, who I can only assume prefers to remain anonymous. The essence of CEWS-shaming is to ask whether financially sound firms should take advantage of a taxpayer-funded wage subsidy program meant to help businesses affected by the pandemic.
The program is officially described as follows:
As a Canadian employer who has seen a drop in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you may be eligible for a subsidy to cover part of your employee wages, retroactive to March 15. This subsidy will enable you to re-hire workers, help prevent further job losses, and ease you back into normal operations.
Here are some notable names that took advantage of the program:
Eyeybrow-raising names:
O'Shares Investments Inc.
GRIT CAPITAL ADVISORY INC.
TRELIVING PRIVATE INVESTMENTS LTD.
MR. MUSTACHE CAPITAL INC.
Hedge funds
-BloombergSen (I wrote about them here)
-Ewing Morris (I wrote about them here)
-JC Clark
-NEXT EDGE CAPITAL CORP.
-JEMEKK CAPITAL MANAGEMENT (2017) INC.
-JM Fund Management run by Jan Mizrahi formerly of Venator Capital Management
-MAXAM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LTD.
-TIMELO INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC.
Private equity
-DANCAP PRIVATE EQUITY INC. (this is an affiliate of a very wealthy individual, Aubrey Dan)
-DRI Capital Inc (this is the private equity operation of the son of the founder of Future Shop, they have more than $2b in AUM, and about 40 staff)
-CANADIAN VENTURE CAPITAL & PRIVATE EQUITY ASSOCIATION
Extremely boring companies:
CI Investments
First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc.
CUMBERLAND INVESTMENT COUNSEL INC.
Fiera Capital
PENDERFUND CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LTD.
I am, of course, not judging. In my view, if the government is handing out toasters, it's perfectly OK for you to claim your own toaster. Nevertheless, I don't know if the PR hit is worth it. And as a bully, it's my duty to prey on any perceived weakness, without worrying about the rights and wrongs of it.