AIMCo investment loss a failure, says Phillips
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on July 21, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com
NDP Finance Critic and Lethbridge West MLA, Shannon Phillips is responding to reports of recent losses incurred by the Alberta Investment Management Corporation.
Phillips issued a statement following a report in the Globe and Mail about AIMCo being out as an owner of the European movie theatre chain Vue International, having bought the company along with another Canadian pension fund in 2013 for $1.48 billion.
“The failure of the Vue investment is another significant loss to Albertans, likely in the neighbourhood of $1 billion. It follows the loss of $2 billion of Albertans’ money due to AIMCo’s failed volatility-based trading strategy,” said Phillips.
She believes the responsibility for those losses falls on the previous AIMCo CEO, who she said was rewarded with a generous $10 million severance package by then-Finance Minister Travis Toews.
“AIMCo has demonstrated clear problems with its risk management approach. It also does not publicly disclose its investments, unlike similar provincial investment funds such BCIMC,” said Phillips.
She said AIMCo’s losses will affect the pension funds that the United Conservative Party forced into management by AIMCo, including the Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund, along with all Albertans through the Heritage Fund.
“This episode proves yet again how dangerous the UCP’s scheme to move Albertans’ CPP contribution into AIMCo management really is. The UCP must abandon this reckless gamble with Albertans’ pensions,” said Phillips.
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Yeh who would have thought that inflation and markets doing what they do would have an effect on investment. Cherry picking.
the idea that a govt can force people and their grouped pensions to be under the management of the entity govt decides is ridiculous – that this is “legal” is absurd.
bucky, how on earth does your partisan ignorance favouring all things ucp, and hating all things ndp, make you so thick as to miss how egregious is the matter? i suppose the 10 million dollar parachute, following epic failure, is ok as well.
Shannon is out of touch. The original investment in Vue was 347 million. Other gains more than make up for the loss. As in real life not everything is a winner. Check your own portfolios.
the two glaring issues here are the 10million $ parachute, for epic failure, and the govt forcing already well run pension plans to be run by another entity. each of these issues is egregious. surely you can see that much here?
Thankyou Shannon Phillips for shining a light on how the losses by AIMCo are negatively affecting the pensions of teachers and other Albertans.Buckwheat comments that we ‘should check our own portfolios.’ Therein is the problem. We can. But teachers cannot, given that AIMCo does not reveal it’s investment practices. We are left in the dark as to what they are doing. The UCP should never have moved these retirement funds. Shame on Travis Toews and the UCP.