A member of parliament from the New Democratic Party is introducing a motion to convert the Canada Emergency Response Benefit into a guaranteed livable basic income. The motion from Leah Gazan, the representative for Winnipeg Centre, is calling on the government to introduce legislation and work with provincial and territorial governments and Indigenous peoples to […]
Toronto-based digital well-being solutions provider Sprout is acquiring Calgary-based predictive health-data analytics company Vivametrica Ltd. Vivametrica analyzes, measures and predicts health risks, potential outcomes and longevity with data from wearable technology and other personal sensors. Sprout previously partnered with Vivametrica on its health risk assessment solution. Read: Taking big data to next level key to […]
Organizations in all Canadian provinces and territories are seeing a drop in their salary increase budgets for 2020, according to a new survey by WorldatWork. Alberta and Saskatchewan (both dropping from 2.8 per cent to 2.3 per cent), the Northwest Territories (from 2.7 per cent to 2.1 per cent), Nunavut (from 2.7 per cent to […]
Institutional investors looking to score potential investments on environmental, social and governance factors now have a new option. Bloomberg is launching its own set of ESG scores, available to its terminal users. Initially, 252 companies in the oil and gas sector will receive environmental and social scores and more than 4,300 companies across several industries will be scored on […]
Looking at public equity market charts for the year so far, many form a V-shape. In these V-shaped situations of rapid decline followed almost immediately by a strong recovery, two very different investment scenarios can prove beneficial, according to a recent blog by Reka Janosik, vice-president at MSCI Research and Thomas Verbraken, the organization’s executive […]
The University of Toronto Asset Management Corp. has received its highest scores in the United Nations’ principles for responsible investing’s annual assessment of its approach to responsible investing. It received A+ marks in all six categories evaluated by the PRI, scoring above the median in each. The UTAM became a signatory to the PRI in […]
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is recommending the federal government develop a strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases, potentially by harmonizing catastrophic drug coverage across the country. In its August federal budget submission to the standing committee on finance, the association noted specialty drugs, including those for chronic and rare disease, made up just two […]
Much debate remains about whether private equity is an appropriate option for members of capital accumulation plans. Canada’s neighbours to the south have been examining the potential legal pitfalls of these allocations. A recent information letter from the U.S. department of labor set forth a framework plan sponsors can use to consider the prudence of […]
Much debate remains as to whether private equity is an appropriate option for members of capital accumulation plans. Canada’s neighbours to the south have been examining the potential legal pitfalls of these allocations. A recent information letter from the U.S. department of labor set forth a framework plan sponsors can use to consider the prudence […]
While Canadian pension plans hold a quiet confidence, it turns out they actually do outperform their international peers when it comes to asset performance and liability hedging, according to a research paper from McGill University and CEM Benchmarking. The paper found Canadian plans achieve this outperformance using a three-pillar model: managing assets in-house to reduce costs, redeploying […]