Pension Pulse

Mark Wiseman, former Chair of AIMCo, former CEO of CPP Investments and current Senior Advisor and Chairman of Lazard Canada wrote a comment for the Globe and Mail on why pension funds are a Canadian success story and politicians must leave them alone: The Canadian pension fund model is the envy of the world and the centrepiece of our lauded social security framework. The system works exceptionally well, yet in the past year, we have seen increasing calls to change this model and use pension funds as a policy tool. This has culminated in an announcement from Ottawa to explore ways to have pension funds invest more domestically. To fully understand the implications of these moves, it is critical to understand what has made the system so successful. Canada’s largest public pension funds, commonly referred to as the Maple Eight, collectively manage approximately $2-trillion in assets, reflecting the winning formula of independent governance, scale, geographical diversification, ...

Sean Conlon and Samatha Subin of CNBC report the Dow slides for a seventh straight day for longest losing streak since 2020:  The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a seventh session on Friday, posting its longest run of losses since 2020. The blue-chip index lost 86.06 points, or 0.2%, to close at 43,828.06. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.12% to 19,926.72. The S&P 500 ended the session little changed, closing at 6,051.09. For the week, the Dow posted a 1.8% decline, while the S&P 500 slid about 0.6% and ended a three-week winning streak. The Nasdaq rose 0.3% during the period. “We’re kind of stuck in this trading range,” Jay Hatfield, CEO at Infrastructure Capital Advisors, told CNBC. “The Nasdaq will outperform, small caps will underperform, [and the] Dow will underperform till we get some catalyst.” Nvidia fell more than 2%, and Meta Platforms shed more than 1%. Amazon shares were also marginally lower. On the other hand, Broadcom reached a market cap of $1 ...

Catherine Morrison of the Ottawa Citizen reports PSAC is spreading 'misinformation' about surplus, says Treasury Board president: Treasury Board President Anita Anand is accusing Canada’s largest federal public sector union of spreading misinformation about the government’s pension surplus.   At a press conference on Dec. 9, Anand told reporters that the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) was sharing “completely inaccurate” information about the government “stealing the pensions from public servants.” On Nov. 25, Treasury Board president Anita Anand tabled  a report  in the House of Commons showing a “non-permitted” surplus of around $1.9 billion in the Public Service Pension Fund as of March 31, 2024. Anand  said the government planned to transfer the surplus  to its Consolidated Revenue Fund — a central government bank account. The minister said in a statement that it would remain there “while next steps are considered.” The govern...