OMERS Aims to Add $10 Billion in Canadian Investments over Five Years

James Bradshaw of the Globe and Mail reports OMERS aims to add $10-billion in new investment in Canada over five years:

The OMERS pension plan is looking to add at least $10-billion in new investments in Canada to its portfolio over the next five years, as chief executive Blake Hutcheson says a push to attract more capital to Canadian projects is starting to show results.

The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System has about 18 per cent of its $145-billion portfolio invested in Canada – about $26-billion. Over the next five years, Mr. Hutcheson aims to increase that share to 25 per cent, he said in an interview.

The investing teams at OMERS are kicking the tires and putting in bids on more assets, especially in infrastructure and real estate, he said. And the fund – the seventh-largest of Canada’s eight biggest pension investors – is gaining confidence that there will be deals worth making in defence as well as in growth capital for Canadian startups.

“What’s really changed is the conditions that are being created are much better,” Mr. Hutcheson said. “There’s more in the window.”

Among its existing Canadian investments, OMERS has a major stake in nuclear energy provider Bruce Power, and it owns land registry provider Teranet. Its real estate portfolio includes prominent malls such as the Yorkdale Shopping Centre and hotels such as the Fairmont Banff Springs. The plan also indirectly has a 5-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors and other sports franchises.

But roughly three-quarters of the $2.6-trillion that Canada’s largest pension funds collectively manage is invested abroad, and governments have urged them to do more at home. The plans’ CEOs have said they are open to boosting their Canadian investment but, at times, they have been defensive – including Mr. Hutcheson.

To protect their independence, they reminded politicians that the plans’ mandates require them to seek out the best returns for their members anywhere in the world, without taking undue risks. And some of those CEOs have said there are still too few big-ticket investment opportunities up for grabs in Canada.

That hasn’t changed. But Mr. Hutcheson is the first CEO of a major Canadian pension fund to set a specific target that would meaningfully boost the overall share of his plan’s portfolio invested in Canada, marking an important change in tone.

“In recent months, my whole posture has changed, and we are very open to a lot more in Canada,” he said.

At all three levels of government, Mr. Hutcheson said the approach from policy makers has shifted from “expectation without opportunity to one of partnership with real opportunity.”

OMERS has tweaked the models it uses to allocate its assets around the world, making the models more favourable to Canada. And the plan’s leaders have signalled to its board of directors that the conditions are ripe to put more capital to work in Canada.

The additional $10-billion of investment that OMERS is promising would be over and above what it already owns. If the plan borrows money to boost the size of new investments in infrastructure or real estate, that could add up to “$20-billion of firepower” that OMERS can, “under the right conditions, deploy here,” Mr. Hutcheson said.

Ottawa has had regular contact with pension-fund leaders about how to make Canada a more attractive place to invest. The government launched the Major Projects Office to co-ordinate faster approvals for priority projects. And Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne have led high-profile trips abroad, with business leaders in tow, to promote Canada as a destination for foreign capital.

“We are in the room, and I’ve personally been in the room more in the last six months than I have been in the last six years,” Mr. Hutcheson said.

But some business leaders have privately expressed anxiety that all the talk and enthusiasm has yet to produce a significant increase in transactions or shovels in the ground.

There is some truth to that, Mr. Hutcheson said, but activity has noticeably picked up in several sectors – especially in real estate.

Mr. Hutcheson is a veteran real estate investor – he was formerly CEO of OMERS-owned Oxford Properties – and he said a 13-per-cent HST rebate on new homes in Ontario, backed by federal funds, has been the “most substantial” breakthrough. Several municipalities have cut fees and levies, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. can offer financing for large projects and cities “are fast-tracking any sort of crane quicker than they have in a decade.”

In the infrastructure sector, “we’ve been in more bake-offs or RFPs,” he added, referring to government-led requests for proposals.

In the defence sector, Mr. Hutcheson also sees a chance to back military suppliers and to extend that support to other NATO countries, though there are still parts of the defence sector that OMERS considers off-limits.

That is partly the result of a sense of urgency to act on the discussions that Canadian business leaders and policy makers have been having, he said.

“The message that I’ve repeatedly shared is, stop mixing and start painting,” Mr. Hutcheson said. “In recent months, we’re seeing the painting.”

Canada also looks more attractive to investors in relative terms, as wars, inflation and political instability put “a bigger risk premium” on deals in other countries, including in the United States, he said. And OMERS expects the Canadian dollar will get stronger relative to other currencies, creating a further incentive for pension plans to invest at home.

Like many large pension funds, OMERS still has minimal interest in being a government partner on greenfield projects that carry uncertainty around building costs and timelines to completion. “The risk is too high,” Mr. Hutcheson said.

Some pension funds have urged governments to sell key infrastructure such as airports, hydroelectric power assets and highways to private owners. But “we’re not sitting around waiting for the government to say, ‘We’re downloading X,’ nor are we advocating for it,” Mr. Hutcheson said.

Instead, he is increasingly convinced the seeds that governments are planting “are starting to grow trees,” so OMERS is “leaning in.”

“Do I want people to move faster? For sure. Do I want the tax regimes to be more enticing and catalytic? Of course. Do you want regulations to get out of the way in service of getting our economy kick-started? They can always do more,” he said. “But on all three fronts, we’re seeing more than we have in a long time.” 

Before I give you my thoughts, please take the time to support Globe and Mail reporter James Bradshaw who is riding his bike on two long journeys this summer to raise money for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation (details can be found on LinkedIn here). 

Alright, so OMERS is aiming to add $10 billion in new investment in Canada over the next five years, mostly in infrastructure and real estate.

Is this feasible? Yes, as long as all the governments -- local, provincial and federal -- create winning conditions for OMERS and all of Canada's Maple 8 and beyond to invest in big projects.

I recently discussed that Prime Minister Mark Carney has invited 100 of the world's biggest investors to a summit in Toronto this September hosted by CPP Investments and PSP Investments.

But I was clear, the time for words and slogans is long gone; the time for action is now, and we need to get going on big projects or else global investors will not invest here.

Wow, it's quite an achievement for Canada to have had even lower growth than Germany during the last decade.

Germany has done almost everything humanly possible to ruin its economy. How has Canada been able to beat that? pic.twitter.com/G8dm4D44xQ

— Michael A. Arouet (@MichaelAArouet) April 21, 2026

We need to privatize airports, ports, toll roads, electricity grids and do more to cut the risks of greenfield projects. We need to significantly cut regulations at all levels of government to get things going.

OMERS CEO Blake Hutcheson has joined his peers in high-level meetings with the federal Finance Ministry and he's optimistic that something will come out of these meetings.

I hope he's right. When we last spoke on February 23rd, when I covered OMERS' 2025 results, he shared this with me:  

A couple more ideas. We remain 55% committed to the United States. They're 26% of the global GDP -- their fiscal and monetary stimulus at this point in history is going to ensure that, at least for the foreseeable future, their markets are strong for most of the assets we invest in. Over time that exceptionalism may wane for all the reasons that we know, but for the short term, we remain committed to lots of assets, lots of counterparties in that market, and we've got deep friendships there. Notwithstanding, when people read the headlines, the Americans are great friends, and are great partners. 

But we want to do more in Canada. And we have, as you know, a significant portfolio here, sometimes with partners. Banff Springs, Chateau Lake Louise, Jasper Park Lodge, Chateau Whistler, Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Square One, Scarborough Town Centre, 20% of the office market A class product in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto. Bruce Power, the largest nuclear plant on the planet, 31% of the power supply for Ontario. Teranet, the Ontario land registry system here, a little piece of the MLSE, as you know, some really good PE businesses, some really good ventures investments. 

So we are, we're really committed to Canada, but we want to do more. And we're, we're encouraged when we look particularly at our infrastructure and and real estate, books and pipelines, that there's a lot of the offer there that we hope to get, get over the top, because we like the rule of law. We believe in this country.  

We believe in the future this country. We like a lot of the signs we're seeing as as you know, with this new government and the direction of travel with proper economic seeds getting planted for the first time in a long time. So I hope you'll read more in the future Leo that we're doing more in Canada. We're certainly seeing the prospects, and we're certainly committed to it.  

And ended the discussion with this:

 [...] our plan, which you've also heard me say multiple times, is 1,2,3,4,5. Between now and 2030, our ambition is to be 100% plus a cushion funded. Our $150 billion, roughly, will be $200 billion of equity. Three stands for three geographies, very prescriptive strategies. If we can't be great at something, we don't go there. Four for $400 billion plus of AUM. We are moving fast approaching half a trillion dollar enterprise between now and 2030. And to your final point, five stands for a 5% real which we've been able to deliver for five and 10 years, respectively. And when you look through and go back to the first objective, we will be significant. We will have a significant cushion in our funded status by delivering a 5% real, and we're measured by bridging that gap and giving our pensioners some optionality and a big cushion, not by some other metrics or some other, abstract number that doesn't pertain to our known liabilities. So that's the that's the message. 

So, OMERS remains committed to the US but wants to do more in Canada. By 2030, they will have $200 billion of equity if all goes well. This means they can easily afford to add another $10 billion in Canadian investments if the right opportunities present themselves.  

I want to stress that last part, the right opportunities have to be there for OMERS and other Maple-8 funds to invest significantly in Canada. 

I also want to stress that while Blake Hutcheson is as patriotic as they come (we both were so upset after Team Canada's 2-1 overtime loss to Team USA in the gold medal game at the Olympic Winter Games), OMERS isn't doing this for patriotic reasons; it wants to best match assets with liabilities in an intelligent way.

Below, on February 24, 2026, the Economic Club of Canada hosted the inaugural “In the Executive Chair with Rob Kumer” luncheon, featuring Rob Kumer (CEO, KingSett Capital) in conversation with Blake Hutcheson (President & CEO, OMERS).

The discussion examined Canada’s position in a shifting global and trade environment, the role of pension capital in supporting long-term economic growth, and the structural reforms required to strengthen productivity and competitiveness.

Great discussion, take the time to listen to it.