Pension Pulse

Inayat Singh of CBC News reports  Canada wants to build up to 10 new nuclear plants, but will our pension funds pay for them?:  When Tim Hodgson, Canada’s natural resources minister, announced the federal government’s plan to dramatically expand the nuclear energy industry , he cited a project in the U.K. as a model. That plant, Sizewell C on the Suffolk coast of England, is set to cost 38.2 billion pounds ($72.3 billion Cdn). But a key detail is that private investors are taking a 55 per cent stake in the project by sharing the construction costs. Hodgson wants to emulate that model to achieve his government's lofty target of building up to 10 new reactors in Canada. The prospect isn't far-fetched: one of Sizewell C’s investors is La Caisse , the public pension fund of Quebec, which has taken a 20 per cent stake in the reactor through an investment of $3.2 billion Cdn. But attracting this kind of investment isn't easy, especially for risk-averse pension funds. Nuclea...

James Bradshaw of the Globe and Mail reports  OMERS streamlines leadership structure after investment chief departs: The OMERS pension plan is redrawing its leadership structure to create more direct reporting lines to chief executive officer Blake Hutcheson after investment chief Ralph Berg left the fund this week to take a new job. Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System announced Thursday that it is giving expanded roles to Michael Hill, who will oversee the plan’s infrastructure and private equity divisions worldwide, and to Scott McIntosh, who takes on responsibility for the plan’s equities team. OMERS will not name a new chief investment officer, and Mr. Hutcheson will take on duties from Mr. Berg, whose departure to take a new role at Singaporean state-owned fund Temasek Holdings Ltd. was announced in June . Five senior executives will report directly to Mr. Hutcheson, giving him clear responsibility for the fund’s investing activities on a daily basis. T...