{"id":54170,"date":"2020-07-15T08:10:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T13:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=54170"},"modified":"2020-07-15T08:11:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T13:11:29","slug":"is-jason-kenney-ready-to-bet-albertan-pensions-on-failing-fossil-fuel-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=54170","title":{"rendered":"Is Jason Kenney Ready to Bet Albertan Pensions on Failing Fossil Fuel Firms?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2020\/07\/15\/Jason-Kenney-Bet-Failing-Fossil-Fuel\/\">Is Jason Kenney Ready to Bet Albertan Pensions on Failing Fossil Fuel Firms?<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The UCP government is moving to take control of citizens\u2019 savings \u2014 and they should be very worried.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2020\/07\/14\/JasonKenneyStandingUpAB.jpg\" alt=\"JasonKenneyStandingUpAB.jpg\"\/><figcaption>Alberta Premier Jason Kenney may be&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/calgary\/alberta-pension-plan-aimco-max-fawcett-1.5374110\">eying up<\/a>&nbsp;the retirement funds of public sector workers as a financial lifeline for companies in the oil patch.&nbsp;Photo via the Government of Alberta.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Cautious. Reliable. Boring. Those are words that are appropriately associated with pension fund management. However, pensions have recently become a hot button political issue in Alberta, for some ominous reasons.<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2020\/07\/15\/Jason-Kenney-Bet-Failing-Fossil-Fuel\/#series-listview-link\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As international investment dries up for the fossil fuel sector, evidence mounts that Premier Jason Kenney may be&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/calgary\/alberta-pension-plan-aimco-max-fawcett-1.5374110\">eying up<\/a>&nbsp;the retirement funds of public sector workers as a financial lifeline for companies in the oil patch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United Conservative Party didn\u2019t mention sweeping pension reform in its election platform, but it has been a curious legislative priority since they were swept to power last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/edmonton\/unions-aimco-pension-management-1.5364403\">Bill 22<\/a>&nbsp;forced the Alberta Teachers\u2019 Retirement Fund to hand over its $18-billion pension fund to Alberta Investment Management Corp. \u2014 a Crown corporation that just lost&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/article-aimco-reveals-massive-losses-for-albertas-heritage-savings-trust-fund\/\">$1.9 billion<\/a>&nbsp;of the Alberta Heritage Trust Fund\u2019s assets. This bill also prevents the numerous public pensions under AIMCo control from ever taking their investment business elsewhere, regardless of poor&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/edmonton\/aimco-admits-it-underperformed-in-2019-references-recent-2-1b-loss-in-annual-report-1.5644432\">investment results<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kenney has also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/edmonton\/withdrawing-from-canada-pension-plan-would-come-with-133b-unfunded-liability-alberta-ndp-says-1.5622806\">proposed<\/a>&nbsp;pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan after a vote under his new&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/edmonton\/alberta-opposition-ndp-label-referendum-bill-a-covert-jason-kenney-power-grab-1.5624698\">referendum-on-anything<\/a>&nbsp;bill. AIMCo could then be in charge of over $260 billion entrusted for the financial futures of millions of Albertans.<a href=\"http:\/\/support.thetyee.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The&nbsp;Tyee&nbsp;is&nbsp;supported by&nbsp;readers&nbsp;like&nbsp;you&nbsp;Join us and grow independent&nbsp;media in&nbsp;Canada<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legal firewalls are often in place to prevent political meddling in public pension management. If a politician even attempts to contact a Canada Pension Plan board member, it is a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/calgary\/road-ahead-alberta-government-pension-aimco-1.5550080\">reportable offence<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Jason Kenney Ready to Bet Albertan Pensions on Failing Fossil Fuel Firms? The UCP government is moving to take control of citizens\u2019 savings \u2014 and they should be very worried. Cautious. Reliable. Boring. Those are words that are appropriately associated with pension fund management. However, pensions have recently become a hot button political issue [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25592,12132,5499],"class_list":["post-54170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-jason-kenney","tag-mitchell-anderson","tag-the-tyee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54172,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54170\/revisions\/54172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}