Royal Canadian Mint lays off 39 employees in Winnipeg

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This article was published 29/10/2015 (3606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The Royal Canadian Mint laid off more than a tenth of its Winnipeg workforce after coin production at the Lagimodiere Boulevard facility plummeted in recent years.

In all, 39 people were laid off Tuesday from the Mint’s facility on Lagimodiere at Fermor Avenue, leaving 296 employees. Another 16 people lost their jobs at the Crown corporation’s Ottawa facility, leaving 931 employed there.

“The markets have changed so demand for coin is down,” said spokeswoman Christine Aquino.

She said the economic downturn, leading to an excess of coins in circulation both domestically and abroad, means the Mint is producing fewer coins, necessitating the layoffs.

Twenty-three of the Winnipeg jobs were unionized manufacturing positions. There were also losses in finance, research and development and engineering.

The number of domestic coins produced by the mint has fallen 75 per cent in the last three years, from 1.5 billion coins in 2011 to 361 million in 2014. Coin production is the major program at the Winnipeg facility.

In the first half of 2015, the number of coins produced for Canada has rebounded but foreign contract revenues are down almost 56 per cent over the previous year.

Despite this, the Mint was actually far more profitable in 2014, with $41.3 million in after-tax revenues compared with $36.2 million in 2013 and $14.1 million in 2012. Aquino says this is largely due to the sales and production of collector coins and bullion, both of which are produced in Ottawa.

A town hall meeting was held with remaining employees in Winnipeg Wednesday to update them on results, which would include the second-quarter results. Although foreign contracts are down, the Mint’s plan is to produce 15 per cent of the world’s coins by 2020.

Aquino said the Mint is not looking at the future for the Winnipeg plant with gloom.

“We’re optimistic about the business,” she said. “We are doing things a little bit differently but we are still winning contracts.”

The Winnipeg facility underwent a $60-million expansion in 2013 to increase the size of the plating facility and create a research centre of excellence. Aquino said neither of those programs was affected by these layoffs.

The board of directors of the Mint was in trouble earlier this year for paying for 11 Mint officials to attend a three-day post-conference vacation tour at a five-star resort in Mexico. The trip cost likely $1,450 per person and was an add-on after an international minting conference in Mexico City.

A spokesman for the union representing Mint employees did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca