CALGARY—Lawyers for the Alberta Teacher’s Association are poring over a bill tabled Monday that hands control of investment decisions for their membership’s pension plan to a Crown corporation

Up until now, investment decisions for the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund as well as funds for the Workers’ Compensation Board and Alberta Health Services were handled independently. But Bill 22, if signed into law, would require the funds — totalling roughly $30 billion in assets — to sign investment management agreements with the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) by next June.

ATA president Jason Schilling described the decision as a “hijacking” of teacher’s pensions and said the union is considering legal action in response, although he said they’re still exploring their options.

In an interview with the Star Calgary, Schilling explained that both teachers and the government co-sponsor the ATRF, but the province never consulted with the union before making their decision. Schilling said they first heard about it when the provincial budget was released in October.

“To have this happen without any kind of consultation was extremely distressing for teachers, because we’ve been told that this was in the best interest of plan members, but have not been told exactly how,” he said.

A briefing document provided to reporters on Monday said the transfer of these funds to AIMCo control would “create economies of scale.” In a past interview with the Edmonton Journal, AIMCo CEO Kevin Uebelein said consolidating these funds would be a win-win for not only the funds, but AIMCo itself, allowing it to hire more talented employees and become more globally competitive.

AIMCo manages about $108.2 billion in assets. According to the corporation’s website, they’re responsible for investments related to 31 pension, endowment and government funds in Alberta. Their mandate document describes them as an arms-length investment manager whose board of directors is independent of the Alberta government.

But Schilling said the ATRF as it stands has performed well for the past 80 years. In some cases, he said it has performed better than AIMCo.

“It doesn’t affect the government’s bottom line. There really is no reason for us to see this move,” he said.

After meeting with AIMCo and Alberta government representatives on Friday, ATRF board chair Sandra Johnston said the board wasn’t convinced AIMCo can handle pensions in quite the same way.

“We continue to be concerned that the proposal was made without all the necessary information, particularly as ATRF has not been asked to provide any data to date,” Johnston wrote in a letter to Finance Minister Travis Toews on Friday.

She proposed asking Alberta’s Auditor General to complete an independent review of the situation and determine whether AIMCo is better positioned to manage pensions over the ATRF. If the board determined that the Crown corporation would better suit Alberta teachers, she wrote, ATRF would consider AIMCo as an asset manager, as is their duty. Johnston’s letter encouraged the province “to take necessary steps that would allow AIMCo to compete for ATRF’s business.”

Ultimately, Schilling said, trust is one of the union’s biggest issues.

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“This is a pension plan that is co-sponsored by the government of Alberta and the teachers of Alberta,” he said. “To make a move like this without consulting them at first seems to be disrespectful.”

Correction - Nov. 21, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the assets of Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund, as well as funds for the Workers’ Compensation Board and Alberta Health Services totalled $3 million.

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