B.C. Premier John Horgan declined to comment on what effect his government\u2019s opposition to the pipeline expansion might have on BCI pension investments, which also include major oilsands producers Suncor Energy Inc. and Cenovus Energy Inc., both of which have signed up to ship oil through the expanded pipeline between Alberta and B.C.<\/p>\n
B.C. organizations that support the pipeline described the government\u2019s stance, given BCI\u2019s investments in the sector, as \u201crank hypocrisy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you bike to work every day, your food and supplies are delivered to you via trucks using oil and gas and in many cases your retirement funds are directly tied to this vital industry,\u201d Kris Sims, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said in an email. \u201cThe B.C. government needs to wake up to this reality and fast before they do further damage to Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the provincial finance ministry said BCI \u201cfulfills its investment role on behalf of pension boards without any direction or influence from the B.C. government or MLAs.\u201d She confirmed BCI oversees investments for MLA\u2019s pensions, which would include that of Horgan.<\/p>\n BCI\u2019s largest energy holding is Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. The fund recently purchased 90,368 shares in the super major, bringing its stake to 2,035,641 shares, worth more than US$157 million.<\/p>\n A breakdown from Bloomberg shows 5.8 per cent of BCI\u2019s public investments is in the energy sector, worth about $3.8 billion.<\/p>\n In recent months, BCI has spent millions of dollars buying up U.S. oil and gas equities, including oilfield services companies like Halliburton Co., Helmerich & Payne Inc., and Schlumberger Ltd., as well as shale producers Midland, Texas-based Concho Resources Inc., Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources Inc. and Houston\u2019s Occidental Petroleum Corp.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re playing the biggest service companies and the biggest production growth basin,\u201d said Rafi Tahmazian, senior portfolio manager and director at Toronto-based Canoe Financial, of BCI\u2019s recent purchase.<\/p>\n Many of the U.S. oil companies BCI has recently purchased have assets in the Permian basin in Texas, which is expected to lead global oil supply growth next year.<\/p>\n Tahmazian, who\u2019s focus is on the oil and gas sector, also said that based on the composition of BCI\u2019s biggest energy holdings, the fund seems to be taking a generalist or \u201cindex hugging\u201d approach to the oil sector. BCI also recently increased its exposure to major U.S. producers such as Chevron Corp., Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Exxon, and others. All told, BCI owns stock in more than 30 oil and gas companies.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the sector ran hard and they were not in energy because of political decisions, then they would be underperforming and they would be criticized,\u201d Tahmazian said.<\/p>\n He also said it\u2019s a good sign that BCI\u2019s portfolio managers have made investing decisions rather than political decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an irony that (BCI\u2019s investment managers) with their investor policy statement is obligated to have energy exposure and when they go into it, without taking the time to understand the sector better, they\u2019re owning the biggest of the big names and they happen to be on the front lines,\u201d he said, noting the debate over an oilsands pipeline has divided the province.<\/p>\n In its annual report on ‘responsible investing\u2019, BCI said it was a signatory to the Climate Action plan to “take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, consistent with the goal of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise well below two degrees Celsius.”<\/p>\n The fund also said it voted in favour of a human rights shareholder proposals at meetings of both Enbridge and Marathon and urged them to report on the due diligence process they follow to identify environmental and social risks, including indigenous rights, when reviewing potential acquisitions.<\/p>\n “Shareholders are concerned that legal and reputational risks related to oil and gas projects \u2022 Email: gmorgan@nationalpost.com<\/a> | Twitter: geoffreymorgan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BCI manages pension investments for 569,000 British Columbians, including B.C. Premier John Horgan’s pension<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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\/8361"}],"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\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8362,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8361\/revisions\/8362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/05\/fp0508_bc_pension_funds_c_mf.png?w=355&h=562\")
<\/a>BCI manages the pensions for the province\u2019s teachers, provincial government and municipal government employees and also manages assets for several B.C. government agencies and bodies. All told, BCI manages pension investments for 569,000 British Columbians as well as the insurance benefit funds for 2.3 million workers in the province through WorkSafe BC. Janice Toker, spokesperson for the Victoria-based Crown corporation, said in an email \u201cwe do not publicly discuss our investment strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nhave grown steadily,” according to the BCI report.<\/p>\n