Canadian pensions face new call to invest at home, this time from major business leaders

financialpost.com:

Canada’s biggest pension funds have largely rebuffed recent pressure to pour more of their billions of investment dollars into their home market, but a new campaign backed by 90 business leaders including chief executives of some of the country’s biggest companies appears set to escalate the debate.

In an open letter to federal and provincial finance ministers on March 6, the business leaders call for rules and new incentives to reverse a decline in domestic investments to bolster the economy, with a specific focus on the pension giants.

“Without government sponsorship and considerable tax assistance, pension funds would not exist. Government has the right, responsibility and obligation to regulate how this savings regime operates,” says the letter signed by dozens including BlackBerry Ltd founder Jim Balsillie, Metro Inc. chief executive Eric La Flèche, the CEOs of telecommunications companies Telus Corp., Rogers Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc., and former Bank of Nova Scotia and Air Canada CEOs Brian Porter and Calin Rovinescu.

Increasing investments in Canada should be a national priority

“Increasing investments in Canada should be a national priority,” they said in the letter to be published in newspapers including the National Post, Globe and Mail, and Quebec publications La Presse and Le Devoir.

The letter suggests Canadian pension funds have reduced their holdings in publicly traded Canadian companies from 28 per cent of total assets at the end of 2000 to less than four per cent at the end of 2023, and that the country’s eight largest pensions have invested some $88 billion in China, more than the $81 billion they have in Canadian public and private companies combined.

Less investment in Canadian businesses