The union representing more than 200,000 Canadian public sector employees says the Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s investment in a for-profit, long-term care provider is inconsistent with its fiduciary and legal obligations to plan members. The Public Service Alliance of Canada is calling on the PSP to end its investment in Revera Inc., its wholly […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board saw a 3.1 per cent net return for its fiscal 2020 year, which ended March 31. Rising to $409.6 billion in assets under management, the fund saw $12.1 billion in investment income and $5.5 billion in net contributions. However, the 3.1 per cent return falls short compared to the fund’s 8.9 per […]
Across the country, public pension plans are releasing statements to assure members that their defined benefit pensions are secure and that they’re taking measures to protect the health and safety of their own staff. The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan said it regularly tests operations and will continue to make pension payments. […]
As private equity becomes a more sizeable part of Canadian pension portfolios, the British Columbia Investment Management Corp.’s resources and staffing are growing with it. In April 2016, when Jim Pittman joined the BCI as its senior vice-president of private equity, his group comprised six or seven people. Three and a half years later, the […]
Heading into 2020 and beyond, the outlook for interest rates is impacting the federal government’s projected pension obligations and its budgetary balance. In its 2019 fall economic update on Monday, the government reduced the projected budgetary balance by $4.2 billion in 2019/20 and $11.6 billion in 2024/25. While the balance projections aren’t entirely related to pension obligations, […]
While the fact that past performance is not a guarantee of future results is a familiar refrain, it appears public pension funds’ return expectations do correlate with how they’ve performed in the past. A paper by Aleksandar Andonov, an associate professor of finance at the University of Amsterdam and Joshua Rauh, director of research and […]
The Alberta Teachers’ Association and the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund are calling on the province’s auditor general to examine the 2019 budget proposal that would put the pension’s investments under the control of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. In a letter to the auditor general, the ATRF said it would prefer to remain in control of its own investments. “Without […]
Canada’s retirement system jumped one spot to ninth place in Melbourne Mercer’s annual global pension index. Comparing 37 global retirement systems, the report found the Canadian system showed improvement partly due to the growth in assets under the Canada Pension Plan and the Quebec Pension Plan. It also demonstrated a link between the increasing household debt in developed and […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board and the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund Board are acquiring all issued and outstanding common shares of AltaGas Canada Inc. The Canadian company holds natural gas distribution utilities, as well as renewable power generation assets. In the transaction, the cash offering of $33.50 per common share is an approximate 31 per cent premium on AltaGas’ closing […]
What effect do low interest rates really have on how pension funds invest and what are the long-term consequences? When plan sponsors are underfunded, they have a few set options, according to a new paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. For a state-sponsored plan, the choice of whether to take on assets with higher […]