Words and imagery have the power to connect, evoke emotion and elicit a reaction. They also have the power to be inclusive, or exclusive, and employers can now harness that power for good to ensure they’re creating an inclusive workplace for everyone. If you received an email written in language you couldn’t relate to, would […]
The murder of George Floyd, one year ago today in Minneapolis, Minn., sparked calls for change around the world including in Canadian workplaces. Floyd’s death kicked off global Black Lives Matter rallies last spring and summer, as well as many hard conversations about anti-Black systemic racism between Canadian employers and employees. And in the wake of those […]
Nike Inc. has released a series of diversity, equity and inclusion targets it aims to achieve over the next five years and announced it’ll tie executive compensation to meeting them and its broader environmental, social and governance efforts. “Our Purpose 2025 Targets are not just aspirations. They are a call to action — with clear […]
The Canadian Investment Review’s Sustainable Investing Award will be presented to a pension plan that has shown leadership and/or significant progress when it comes to incorporating sustainability into the investment process. This will consider sound practices related to environmental, social and governance matters across asset classes and can include considerations related to people management within […]
Despite the low interest rate environment, it still makes sense for defined benefit pension plan sponsors to adopt a liability-driven investment strategy, said Serge Lapierre, global head of LDI at Manulife Investment Management, during a webinar sponsored by the firm on Monday. LDI investing is a risk management framework, he noted. “It’s not an asset […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is buying a portfolio of 73 photovoltaic plants from Q-Energy Ltd., the first step in creating a new platform in Spain that seeks to aggregate further renewable assets. The transaction will be finalized in the coming months, after which Q-Energy will continue to provide comprehensive management of […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is opening a new office in Singapore to enhance its capabilities in Asia Pacific. As of the end of 2019, the plan had more than 30 employees in the region and about $15 billion invested there across public equity, private equity and infrastructure. “Expanding our presence in Asia is critical […]
At the time of my last column in May, many pension plan sponsors were catching their breath after watching funding levels take a roller coaster ride. After a steep drop earlier in the year, funding levels were slowly recovering. However, market uncertainty remained and it wasn’t clear what was coming next. Thankfully the last few […]
The vast majority of investors (82 per cent) are satisfied with how their portfolios performed in the first half of 2020, despite some weak results in strategies such as emerging market debt and smart beta, according to a new study of 368 investors with combined assets of approximately US$11 trillion. Following the quickest equity market […]
As part of the federal government’s debt management strategy, it’s increasing long-term debt issuance. In particular, the government will be increasing issuance of the 10-year and 30-year bonds for 2020-2021 to an unprecedented combined amount of $106 billion, according to the federal economic and fiscal snapshot from July 8. The issuance is roughly five times […]