{"id":18675,"date":"2020-06-11T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/alberta-ndp-introduces-bill-to-reverse-teachers-pension-transfer-to-aimco-146907"},"modified":"2020-06-11T09:00:18","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T13:00:18","slug":"alberta-ndp-introduces-bill-to-reverse-teachers-pension-transfer-to-aimco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/06\/11\/alberta-ndp-introduces-bill-to-reverse-teachers-pension-transfer-to-aimco\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta NDP introduces bill to reverse teachers\u2019 pension transfer to AIMCo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Staff<\/span> | June 11, 2020 <\/p>\n

The Alberta New Democratic Party\u2019s labour and immigration critic is attempting to reverse the provincial government\u2019s plan to transfer teachers\u2019 pensions to the Alberta Investment Management Corp.<\/p>\n

Christina Gray, an NDP member of the legislative assembly for Edmonton-Mill Woods, introduced Bill 203, called the Pension Protection Act, on Monday. The legislation, if passed, would undo a portion of the United Conservative Party\u2019s Bill 22, which mandated that the Alberta Teachers\u2019 Retirement Fund transfer its assets to the AIMCo\u2019s management. The omnibus bill<\/a>, passed in November, also prevents any public sector plans from withdrawing from the AIMCo\u2019s management.<\/p>\n

Gray\u2019s bill would require a current or future government to consult with pension holders before making any changes to the plans\u2019 administration. It would also prevent Alberta from withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan, which the province is considering<\/a> under its so-called Fair Deal panel.<\/p>\n

Read: Proposed Alberta Pension Plan has underwriting, political risks: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe UCP, the party of the free market, is choosing to force all Albertan pensioners to use AIMCo rather than allowing them the opportunity to have competition within the market,\u201d said Gray at a press conference. \u201cThey are creating a monopoly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the legislature, she said the government\u2019s changes had \u201cterrified tens of thousands of teachers who earned their pensions over a lifetime of hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray\u2019s bill comes as the AIMCo faces criticisms for substantial losses on a volatility strategy that performed poorly amid the coronavirus pandemic-related equity market turbulence in the first quarter of 2020. Kevin Uebelein, the AIMCo\u2019s chief executive officer, said in a late April press release that the investment manager lost approximately $2.1 billion<\/a>, though actual losses wouldn\u2019t be finalized until the strategy is wound down by mid-June.<\/p>\n

The AIMCo declined to respond to Benefits Canada<\/em>\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Read: AIMCo calls reports of losses on volatility strategy \u2018dramatically\u2019 overstated<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alberta\u2019s Finance Minister Travis Toews hit back at Gray\u2019s assertions in the legislature on Monday. \u201cThe reality is, there\u2019s not a pension management firm that has not experienced a real challenge in Q1 of 2020. In fact, . . . AIMCo\u2019s returns in eight of the last 10 years have beat the benchmark.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a note to members posted on its website, the ATRF confirmed it hadn\u2019t yet transferred its assets to the AIMCo. \u201cWe are in the process of transferring our asset management to AIMCo as the government of Alberta has required us to do, but that transfer has not completed so ATRF assets have not suffered as a result of the AIMCo losses reported in the media,\u201d said Sandra Johnston, ATRF\u2019s board chair, in the note. \u201cI want to reassure ATRF members that we continue to work diligently on their behalf doing everything we can to ensure this transfer will not harm the long-term stability of our plans and the security of their pensions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November,<\/a> the ATRF and the Alberta Teachers\u2019 Association called for the province\u2019s auditor general to examine the asset transfer proposal.<\/p>\n

Read: Alberta teachers calling on auditor general to investigate proposed public pension changes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staff | June 11, 2020 The Alberta New Democratic Party\u2019s labour and immigration critic is attempting to reverse the provincial government\u2019s plan to transfer teachers\u2019 pensions to the Alberta Investment Management Corp. Christina Gray, an NDP member of the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}