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EDMONTON – Alberta’s finance minister has sacked the chief executive officer and entire board of directors of Alberta Investment Management Corp., the Crown corporation that manages pension and other funds for the province and handles more than $160 billion in assets.

Finance Minister Nate Horner said in a statement Thursday that the changes at AIMCo are due to rising management fees coupled with a consistent failure to meet mandated benchmark returns.

The decision takes effect immediately and Horner will be sole director and chair for AIMCo until a new chair is appointed within 30 days, with a new board established after that.

Horner told reporters that he’s been watching AIMCo closely, and determined changes weren’t going to happen without a “major reset.”

The pension fund manager’s chief executive officer, Evan Siddall, was also fired Thursday, as were three other senior executives, Horner said.

Siddall had been in the role since the summer of 2021.

“Sometimes you just need a clean slate,” Horner said, adding that an interim chief executive will be named in the coming days.

“I’m doing this because … I’m the minister responsible, and costs like this are borne by all its clients, Albertans in general and the pensions that they represent now.”

The province said that from 2019 to 2023, AIMCo’s third-party management fees have increased by 96 per cent, the number of employees increased by 29 per cent, and wage and benefit costs increased by 71 per cent.

These costs all increased, it said, while AIMCo managed a smaller percentage of funds internally.

AIMCo, in its latest annual report, said it had $161 billion of assets under management as of the end of last year, with 600 employees spread across offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Luxembourg and London, U.K.

It said it handles about $118 billion in investments for public sector pension plans representing thousands of Albertans, including teachers, police officers and municipal workers.

Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said they are monitoring developments and will defend the interests of active and retired teachers as needed.

“The association disapproved of the government-mandated transferring of teacher pension assets to AIMCo in 2020 and we remain concerned about the politicization of pension policy,” said Schilling in a statement.

AIMCo is also responsible for managing the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, in which Premier Danielle Smith has pledged to stash over $250 billion.

Court Ellingson, the Opposition NDP finance critic, called the move to get rid of the board and chief executive “unprecedented.”

“If they’ve been monitoring this for a while, they had many opportunities to do something that was not so drastic and earth-shattering as today’s move,” Ellingson said, adding he’s concerned about what message is being sent with a politician being the sole director of the corporation, even temporarily.

“In a fund of this size, you have investment decisions that are happening all the time,” Ellingson said. “The people who are on the other side negotiating those deals have just seen an elected, partisan political person being put in charge of these funds.

“That makes them question the deal that they are making. It makes Albertans question the stability of this fund. It makes Albertans question whether or not that fund really is under the thumb of the premier and the finance minister.”

AIMCo, which was established in 2008, has weathered controversy in recent years.

In the spring of 2020, it took a $4-billion loss on the $110 billion it managed.

AIMCo officials at the time said the loss was a result of COVID-19-related market swings, which also led to an ensuing oil price war.

Then-premier Jason Kenney defended the fund managers, saying at the time that the loss was a “fraction” of what was seen elsewhere.

This is also the third board to be fired in its entirety by the UCP government, following Smith’s firing of the Alberta Health Services board in 2022 and the firing of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity board last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

WINNIPEG – Bills to ban employers from using replacement workers, enact tax changes, and set new rules around the sale of machetes were among those passed into law Thursday as the yearlong session of the Manitoba legislature wrapped up.

But the NDP government, elected with a solid majority last year, did not get some bills through, including ones to further limit rent increases and require new judges to undergo training on sexual assault and racism.

The biggest legislation for the NDP was its omnibus budget bill, which enacts tax changes announced in the spring budget.

The government added several non-budget items to the bill. One bans employers from using replacement workers during strikes or lockouts. Another makes it easier for workers to join a union without holding a formal vote. A third increases the rebates for political campaign expenses to 50 per cent from 25 per cent.

The inclusion of the non-budget items had the Opposition Progressive Conservatives accusing the government of ducking debate, as budget-related bills are exempt from public hearings that are mandatory for others.

“These are major legislative changes that the NDP is undemocratically forcing through,” Progressive Conservative legislature member Lauren Stone said Thursday.

The NDP said it was acting on its election promises.

“We’ve got a job to do and … these are things that Manitobans have asked for,” NDP house leader Nahanni Fontaine said.

Also passed into law Thursday night is a series of new restrictions on the sale of machetes and other long-blade items, in an attempt to crack down on crime. Vendors will soon be required to record the names of buyers, restrict sales to people aged 18 and up, and have the instruments stored away from easy public access.

Yet another new law will see child and family services cases involving Indigenous people transferred to Indigenous service providers. Fontaine, who is also the province’s minister of families, said the change will decolonize child welfare.

“We now have the legislative means to ensure that … children are with their families, in their communities, in their nations,” she said.

The NDP did not get its full legislative agenda through, however.

A bill to set down stricter conditions for landlords who want to raise rents above the rate of inflation was introduced in May but was not called for a vote.

Another bill not passed would have bolstered judges’ training. It was initially put forward by Liberal Cindy Lamoureux in the spring but revamped by the NDP and introduced last week with just six sitting days left in the session.

The bill would have required new provincial court judges and justices of the peace to undergo training on sexual assault law, intimate partner violence, systemic racism and more.

The NDP wanted the Opposition to waive normal timelines to rush the bill into law, and the Tories offered to do so only if the NDP agreed to pass a Tory bill that would have set a reduced age for routine breast cancer screening. The two sides didn’t reach a deal before the session ended.

All bills that failed to pass during the session are expected to be reintroduced, at square one, shortly after the start of the next session, expected on Nov. 19.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

ORILLIA, Ont. – Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating after a police shooting left a 26-year-old man dead in Orillia.

Ontario Provincial Police responded to a report of a fight at a residence just before 2 p.m. Thursday, with a man who was believed to have been involved found by officers nearby.

The Special Investigations Unit says one officer was stabbed and suffered serious injuries.

The agency says the officer fired their weapon, while another officer discharged a conducted energy weapon at some point.

The man was pronounced dead in hospital and a post-mortem is scheduled for Friday.

Ontario’s police watchdog handles cases involving police in which someone is killed or injured.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.