Take note: Corporations are rich enough to set-up job-creation programs to help their communities, and yet they are axing peope ... BIG TIME!

Scotiabank axes 1,500 jobs

Source: CBC Business News

When you're a bank raking in more than $6 billion in profit this year, the optics aren't good when your newly minted CEO comes out and announces you plan on firing 1,500 employees, 1,000 of them across Canada. It's a big, ugly number that's sure to dominate the news cycle

But that's exactly what Scotiabank CEO Brian Porter did this week, saying the bank would be streamlining its workforce as part of a cost-cutting plan that also includes writing down hundreds of millions of dollars.

The reaction was swift, and predictable, with critics panning the company's apparent heartlessness in their slavish devotion to the almighty dollar. But as Don Pittis wrote in one of our most-read stories this week, there's nothing particularly shocking about it.

Banks are in the business of making money, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's good for them, good for their shareholders, good for their employees — and good for Canada, Pittis wrote.

Scotiabank has long had a reputation for being one of the more international banks we have, with a track record of expanding into areas where it sees growth, like it did in Asia and Latin America decades ago. Sometimes those bets don't go well, but more often than not they do. Banks must manage their risk, so if they think it's a time to retrench a little before the next bout of expansion, that may prove to be best for everyone in the long run.