Ottawa courting major pension funds with no protections for Indigenous rights: Report
A new report says that none of the 11 largest Canadian public pension funds have a publicly disclosed investment policy aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and its core principle of free, prior and informed consent.
The report from Shift, a charitable organization that works to protect pensions and the climate, states that the impact could be significant, as pension funds top the current federal government list for financing a slate of “nation-building” infrastructure and industrial projects.
The absence of guardrails to respect and protect Indigenous rights exposes pension funds and the companies in which they invest to financial, legal, and reputational risks.
To name a few, these risks include regulatory delays, court challenges, public protests, political opposition, reputational damage and project cost overruns.
For comparison, Sweden’s AP2 pension fund and UK-based Scottish Widows state that they expect free, prior and informed consent from the companies they invest in, alongside zero tolerance for violence against human rights and environmental defenders.
However, having guardrails does not ensure adequate climate-risk management, which is also part of pension fund managers’ fiduciary duty. Long-term returns for pensioners are compromised in a world where climate instability becomes the norm.
Indigenous authors quoted in the Shift report argue that economic participation in extractive projects does not resolve rights violations and, in some cases, has left communities with limited alternatives to entering such agreements.
On Sept.14 and 15, the Carney government will convene 100 of the world’s biggest investors in Toronto.
The event is co-hosted by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP). The goal is to attract up to $1 trillion in investment over five years for projects such as pipelines, ports, mines, and transmission corridors. This amount will be backed by about $280 billion in federal capital and incentives.
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