Strong governance allowed the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan to find success in private markets, according to Julie Cays, the plan’s chief investment officer. Before the CAAT plan hired its first CIO in 2004, it was using an outsourced chief investment officer-type model — although it didn’t use this term at the […]
Statistics Canada has released a study showing women only accounted for 19.4 per cent of corporate board directors in 2016. This new study provides the first comprehensive estimates across all types of corporations. Previously, only the share of women on corporate boards in publicly traded corporations had been documented well. The study found that 28.0 […]
Amid the growing popularity of incorporating environmental, social and governance factors in investing, a Dutch pension fund is partnering with index-provider FTSE Russell to design a custom passive index that incorporates some of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. Pensioenfonds Detailhandel has been incorporating ESG principles for almost five years, says Henk Groot, head of investments […]
A report published by the Canadian Public Pension Leadership Council in February 2019 offers compelling evidence about the broad benefits of workplace pension plans. The report, by Robert Brown, builds on a 2017 CPPLC report by Bob Baldwin that asked Canadians to quantify the maximum amount they’d pay, as a percentage of annual income, to maintain their […]
Despite changing demographics and rising health-care costs, it’s uncommon for employers to include retirees in their pension and benefits governance. However, the University of Waterloo Retirees Association, which has been around for more than 30 years, not only connects retired employees with each other and the university, but also allows them to weigh in on […]
The single-employer defined benefit model doesn’t work for the university sector for one clear reason, says Cynthia Messenger, president of the University of Toronto’s Faculty Association. “The model is flawed in one crucial way,” she says. “When the plan accrues debt, the university administration must repay that debt to the pension plan. And the only […]
A recent decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal could significantly change the landscape for employers and pensioners involved in bankruptcy proceedings that engage pension plan deficits. The decision, Guarantee Company of North America v. Royal Bank of Canada, released in January, is a construction lien case that makes no mention of pensions. But the […]
Faculty associations at three Ontario universities, as well as certain affiliated unions, have passed a preliminary vote to convert their various existing pension arrangements into a jointly sponsored pension plan. The University of Toronto Faculty Association, the University of Guelph Faculty Association, Queen’s University Faculty Association, United Steelworkers Local 1998, United Steelworkers Local 4120 and United […]
Sun Life Financial Inc. is among the most sustainable companies globally for the tenth consecutive year. The 2019 ranking, published by media company Corporate Knights, is based on sustainability performance criteria in areas such as financial and employee management, clean revenue and supplier performance. Sun Life’s commitment to sustainability focuses on making progress in four key areas: organizational resilience, environmental responsibility, […]
A majority of Canadians, health-care providers, labour organizations and employers agree a national single-payer system is an idea whose time has come, according to a report by the Broadbent Institute. Canada has attempted to bring in a national pharmacare plan nine times in the last 73 years — in 1945, 1947, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1997, 2002, and […]