Article content

Whatever may have prompted Mark Wiseman’s sudden departure from the CPP Investment Board after less than four years as CEO, it is unlikely his successor will do much to change its basic direction.

Whatever the board’s discontent with Wiseman, it was the board that put him there. And whatever the president’s personal contribution to the public pension fund’s escalating costs, they are a tiny part of the overall problem — as Thursday’s annual report will doubtless show.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Andrew Coyne: CPP board can't escape blame for fund's bloated state Back to video

In all likelihood, it will confirm a trend that has been gathering momentum for the past decade: more staff, higher pay, rising operating expenses, and all for no appreciable payoff for the fund’s 18 million “members,” the Canadian workers who are required to kick into it every year.

So whatever Wiseman’s deficiencies, the board can hardly escape its own share of the blame for the fund’s conspicuously bloated state. The near 25-fold increase in costs over the past 10 years is not, after all, the result of a mere absence of effective spending controls, but reflects a fundamental shift in the fund’s investment strategy, undertaken with the board’s approval in 2006.