Link: https://www.theepochtimes.com/faulty-regulation-blamed-for-pension-plans-cutting-investment-in-canada_4474326.html
Excerpt:
Canada’s government acknowledges that the significant investments they seek in Canadian businesses and infrastructure must come mostly from the private sector. But in fact for decades, the country’s pension funds have been considerably reducing their domestic investments, a trend the feds and regulation are being taken to task for.
Tony Loffreda, independent senator from Quebec and former vice chairman of RBC Wealth Management, on May 12 asked the government’s representative in the Senate, Marc Gold, what the feds could do to incentivize Canada’s pension funds to invest more in Canada “without necessarily regulating free enterprise.”
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The CPPIB’s 2021 annual report showed that in 2006, 64 percent of its assets were invested in Canada and the remaining 36 percent invested globally. But by 2021, the mix had changed to 15.7 percent in Canada and 84.3 percent globally.
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The report outlined some of the reasons for the trend, singling out regulation.
“Plan sponsors are reacting in very predictable ways to their regulatory environment and the only way to change this behaviour is to change the environment,” LetkoBrosseau said.
It said regulation has over-emphasized short-term fluctuations in asset values, resulting in a shorter investment time horizon for pension fund assets. In contrast, pension savings, which represent 30 percent of Canadian savings, are typically invested for the long term and are meant to be managed such that they can take more risk to earn greater rewards.
Author(s): Rahul Vaidyanath
Publication Date: 18 May 2022
Publication Site: The Epoch Times