Staples Canada laid off an unspecified number of head office staff this week as the U.S.-owned chain takes $1.75 million Ontario taxpayer dollars for store retrofits to install ServiceOntario outlets.
Six modified ServiceOntario’s opened inside Staples Canada locations on Thursday and will offer extended evening and weekend hours. Three new Southern Ontario sites are in the GTA, including Oakville, Newmarket and Scarborough.
“Staples Canada implemented an organizational restructuring, which does not impact associates in our retail locations,” a company spokesperson told CityNews.
“This is part of an effort to streamline operations to ensure our organization continues to deliver exceptional products and services to Canadians.”
CityNews learned earlier this week that the provincial government was giving Staples $1.75 million for retrofitting as officials said the deal would save $900,000 over three years.
The Doug Ford government has not responded to multiple requests to see the business case or share more information on where the savings will come from.
Bonnie Crombie, Ontario’s Liberal Party leader, is asking Premier Doug Ford to be more transparent about the decision to move ServiceOntario outlets into Staples Canada stores, saying she has “deep concern” about the province’s “continued backroom deals.”
In a letter addressed to the Premier, Crombie urged Ford to start answering questions about his government’s sole-sourced deal and “end the ServiceOntario cover-up.”
“We later learned that this sell-off of ServiceOntario would include using millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to renovate these privately owned stores,” reads the letter. “Release the business case and let Ontario taxpayers decide for themselves if this is a good use of public funds.
“You’ve insisted Canadians should just believe you, but time and time again, you have betrayed their trust,” the letter continues.
On Wednesday, Ford continued to deflect responsibility on the deal, saying that different officials negotiated and that he wasn’t behind the move.
“None of us dealt with this; the officials brought this to us, and there were about 12 companies that were looking to do this,” said Ford. “It’s no different than the federal government for Canada Post and Shoppers Drug Mart.”
Ford said the deal is good news for Ontarians because of the extended hours at Staples and Walmart.
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