Scott Cyr on AIMco and Ministerial Intervention

As a member of the Standing Committee for the Alberta Savings Trust Fund, the last few months have been of deep concern to me.  Albertans have put their trust in this committee members to ask the right questions to ensure that our savings are protected.  We have an independent crown corporation named Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) who manage our most important funds.  Within the $90.2 billion that AIMCo manages it includes Alberta’s savings, Alberta’s pensions, Alberta’s scholarships and Alberta’s agriculture assistance.

The repeal of sections 5 and 6 means that the Minister of Finance has removed the qualifications that ensured the highest level of competency, and additionally, has effectively removed the ability for AIMCo to effectively manage the Alberta Heritage Trust Fund. It appears that this entity is now subjected to the minister of Finance’s guidance, and can no longer call itself arm’s length. We have had many failed Alberta ventures in the past and ignored arm’s length before that are now attributed to some of Alberta’s worst failures.

On March 8, 2017, I moved the following motion during the committee meeting.

That the Standing Committee on the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund request all documents from the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance pertaining to the Minister of Finance’s decision to repeal section 5 and section 6 of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation regulation and that the minister further provide the committee a written explanation of how this decision is to the benefit of Albertans and the Heritage Savings Trust Fund.

I wasn’t asking for anything that you wouldn’t expect from the committee as we are expected to be the fund’s stewards.  The Minister of Finance is headed down a path of breaching section 3(2) within the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Act.

3(2) When making investments, the Minister shall adhere to investment and lending policies, standards and procedures that a reasonable and prudent person would apply in respect of a portfolio of investments to avoid undue risk of loss and obtain a reasonable return that will enable the Heritage Fund to meet its objectives.

The Chair of the Alberta Heritage Trust Fund Committee ruled the motion out of order as it wasn’t in our mandate.  I put forward that under Section 6 (c) of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Act states “to review after each fiscal year end the performance of the Heritage Fund and report to the Legislature as to whether the mission of the Heritage Fund is being fulfilled.” Then went on to argue that we as a committee be allowed to demand answers when our independent body’s board is to be eroded.  The ruling was reaffirmed and my motion was held out-of-order.  This puts all the investments that it holds for Albertan’s at risk.

The decision to make significant changes to the appointment process for the AIMCo board not only shocked Albertans, AIMCo’s CEO, Kevin Uebelein, stated: “these recent changes to the AIMCo regulation actually did come as a surprise to us and, frankly, not a welcome surprise.” Then went on later to say “when we look at the changes that are reflected by eliminating sections 5 and 6, we respectfully disagree that this is an improvement in our governance. We think we have a really good governance structure. I’ve voiced this opinion with (Deputy Minister of Treasury and Finance)”.

This is unbelievable!

Then last week we learned that now there is direct involvement of NDP political staff into AIMCo’s workings.  Emails referenced in a new Financial Post story detail a troubling trend of NDP interference in the independent workings of AIMCo, even asking for help in a partisan spin for the Premier.   Wildrose has obtained the same documents, and they reveal an ongoing trend of political interference into the workings of AIMCo. In particular, the documents cite concerning and ongoing instances of interference from political staff to AIMCo employees, who are intentionally supposed to be an arm’s length from government involvement.

Let’s be clear, this is your money the NDP are playing Russian roulette with and the worst part of this is that the NDP are also putting our some of our hardworking public employee’s pensions at risk.  The Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP) was established to provide financial retirement security for employees of the Alberta government and other public service organizations. The PSPP is a defined benefit pension plan which currently includes 31 employers and nearly 80,000 members and pensioners.  So I encourage everyone in our riding to write the Minister of Finance and tell him to reinstate sections 5 and 6 within the Alberta Investment Management Corporation Regulations.

If you would like to send our Minister of Finance and Treasury a respectful email to use calgary.fort@assembly.ab.ca to express your disappointment.