OMERS 2026 Annual Meeting Transcript

Good morning, everyone. So today it is my privilege to open the OMERS Annual Meeting with our commitment to work each day for over 650,000 Ontarians who are members of the OMERS Plan and their employers and communities. Myself and others who will be on stage with me today recognize the good fortune we share for the work we get to do every day and for the opportunities afforded to us working and living in Ontario. As part of that gratitude, we respectfully acknowledge that the land on which we are gathered, on which our buildings stand, our people work, and our businesses operate, is part of the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. Today, this traditional meeting place is still the home of many indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to have this opportunity to work on this land. We recognize our responsibility to engage in meaningful continuous process of truth and reconciliation. We are committed to a shared future where we listen to, learn from, and build genuine partnerships with indigenous peoples and communities to enhance understanding, empathy, and celebrate the vibrancy and resiliency of indigenous peoples today. Thank you.

Welcome, and thank you for joining us today for OMERS Annual Meeting. Again, this year we're hosting a hybrid meeting. We have somewhere between 280 and 300 people here in the room and joining us online somewhere in the order of 3,000. It's a fabulous turnout. We're very pleased that all of you have taken the time to come and attend this meeting. My name is George Cooke. I'm the independent chair of the OMERS Administration Corporation’s Board of Directors. Today you will hear four presentations that will help give you a full picture of OMERS and what we are focused on as we work to deliver on our commitment to you, our members. Specifically, you will first hear from Jonathan Simmons, who will review our 2025 annual results.

Next, Blake Hutcheson will share his thoughts on this moment in time for Canada and how it relates to the future of the Plan. Then Celine Chiovitti, our Chief Pension Officer, will present an update on how we work to serve you, our Plan members. And before we move to questions, Michael Kelly will review at a high level our commitment to climate and sustainability much more broadly. I also remind you that our 2025 annual report was published in February, and it is available in full on OMERS website. When the presentations are complete, we've reserved about 45 minutes to an hour to hear and respond to your questions. Before we begin, and while I still have the stage, we know that quite apart from our 2025 results, the OMERS governance transition may be on your minds. To level set where we're at, in late 2025, the Government of Ontario introduced legislation to replace the OMERS Sponsors Corporation with a Sponsors Council. The Sponsors Corporation wound down most of its activities a few weeks ago. That was on March 31st, and that is why, unlike in recent years, there is no presentation from the Sponsors Corporation on today's agenda.

As we continue to receive direction from the government, we've begun to work through the detail with Plan sponsors and stakeholder groups, and the path forward is really beginning to take shape, with the new Council expected to be up and running very soon. The changes the provincial government put in motion are intended to invite greater representation and to improve both transparency and efficiency. I'll close by saying that the Board's role is to uphold strong governance practices and to maintain direct oversight of Plan administration and investment decisions. In continuing to fulfill this mandate, I can easily say on behalf of the OMERS Board that we have full confidence in the OMERS team. They're experts in their respective roles and disciplines, and with every interaction, their commitment to the Plan, and to serving members is very clear. You really could not ask for a better team to safeguard and grow this Plan. With that, I'm now going to hand the podium over to our Chief Financial and Strategy Officer so he can kick off the formal presentations. Jonathan, it's yours.

Good morning, everyone. This is my 13th Annual Meeting. It's always a highlight of the year to come and present the results. As George said, my job today is to look back on the year that was to tell the story of our financial results and to give you a bit of a deeper look into OMERS. But before I get going, and I apologize to those who are joining via the magic of the internet, how many people in the room were here a year ago? A show of hands. How many people in the room were here five years ago? And how many people in the room were here 10 years ago? Okay, so you've heard some of this before and some of it's new, and I'm going to try and make it engaging for you.

So I'm going to start with the highlights. Here are the highlights of the year, the Primary Plan, the Plan that delivers benefits to our members, delivered a 6% return for 2025 in the middle of what I certainly view as a very challenging political and economic environment. We're talking a lot about war at the moment in the Persian Gulf, and that is on everyone's mind. But I would say that 2025 was a very uneven year across investment markets. Against that, the Primary Plan has delivered a return of 7.1% over 10 years. I'm going to get a little bit into the importance of long-term returns because it's long-term investment returns that pay pensions. For every dollar of pensions that we pay, about 25% or 25 cents comes from the contributions that our members and employers make. And 75% or 75 cents comes from investment returns. So the importance of investment returns is critical.

But of course, what members really focus on, what employers really focus on, what our sponsors really focus on, is the funded status of the Plan. And that today is standing at 99%, up 1% from the previous year and measured at what I believe to be a very conservative discount rate of 3.7%. So I'm going to unpack a little bit more detail. This is the summary of investment returns by our seven major asset classes. And as you can see from this chart, six out of seven of our asset classes delivered positive returns in 2025, which is good for the Plan. It was a strong year for public equities. In fact, 2025 was the third consecutive year of double-digit returns from the equity class of investments. It was also a good year for fixed income investments led by private credit. There you can see an 8.3% return.

Those of you who have been coming to this Annual Meeting for several years would've heard me comment that private credit has been an increasingly attractive asset class for us, and we've been putting your money to work in that area. The other observation I would make about 2025 is there was a pleasing recovery in our real estate book. Oxford Properties, which is your real estate management company, put out a positive return on the back of several difficult years for that industry. If you cast your minds back to the pandemic, when most of our businesses were closed, when most of our shopping centers were empty, it's been a couple of tough years in that asset class and it's great to see that organization back in the black. Now it's not all sunshine and ponies. Not all of our asset classes are yet operating at their full potential. The private assets, which for many years have been stalwart deliverers of consistent, strong returns for OMERS, aren't operating at potential right now. Private equities is a good example of that, and we're waiting for the recovery in that asset class to come. And finally, currency.

Currency was a very significant driver of investment returns in 2025. The US dollar, in which we have significant investments, had a very significant pullback. Its largest pullback against G7 countries in many many years, really driven by some of the postures that the United States is taking economically. That hurt OMERS returns by about 1.3%. But our hedging programs, which are meant to even out fluctuations in currency over time, were quite effective and protected 70 basis points of our returns in that period. Now, those of you that have been coming to these meetings for five years will remember that five years ago I put up a chart which compared OMERS performance against a number of sovereign wealth and pension plans across the world, and my team has been tracking that performance for a number of years now. When I look at our five year returns in 2025, those were 7.7%, that compares very favorably to a population of 28 global pension and sovereign wealth funds. I've shown you the range of returns of each of those enterprises. I flagged the major Canadians with the maple leaf and I've shown you the average of 6.7% returns.

For now, OMERS returns are holding up very well. And our assets? They continue to grow. In nine of the last 10 years, our assets have increased and the only year that was the pullback was the 2020 year of the pandemic. And that's important that our assets are growing. That enables us to generate excess returns. And importantly, it enables us to attract the brightest and best investment managers to come and look after your money. Let's look at diversification. Very important that OMERS remains diversified.

We don't know what is coming around the corner at us in political markets with geopolitical risks. And the best defense we can have is to diversify our book across asset classes. Here you see a pie chart showing our asset class distribution. Today, in my opinion, we're very well diversified. My team is conducting a study at the moment to look at the investment blueprint for the future. That's a project that the Board has on the way. We call it an asset liability study. That's going to come up with new recommendations in 2026 going forward. But the early work indicates that what we have today is already very good for our future.

And our assets are also diversified globally. This pie chart shows the distribution of our assets across the world. Today, about 18% in Canada, 55% in the United States, 17% in Europe, and 10% in Asia Pacific and the rest of the world. And Blake is going to click in and look more into our investments in Canada when he comes to give his presentation. But for now, I'll leave you with four images. Yorkdale Shopping Centre here in the GTA, one of the most productive shopping centres in North America; the Stack is an office tower in Vancouver, it's Canada's first net zero building built by Oxford; Bruce Power, which generates 30% of the electricity here in the province of Ontario are all assets that you own through your pension plan; and the bottom right, Xanadu. You may have heard of Xanadu, there were a couple of reports in the paper earlier this week and last week. This is a quantum computing company. It was a seed capital investment in our OMERS ventures business where we put money to work in new kinds of companies to see if they can go. Well, this company certainly is making a go. The market capitalization of Xanadu yesterday hit $16 billion and you own about 10% of that. So really important story and a good example as to how OMERS is investing into the future. As CFO, one of the most important things for me is OMERS financial strength. And I put up on the board a summary of our credit ratings by the four most significant global credit rating agencies, Standard and Poor's, Moody's, Morningstar DBRS, and Fitch.

And as you can see, three of those rating agencies have OMERS at AAA, that is the highest credit rating available, higher than the United States, higher than the United Kingdom, higher than Japan, higher than France, higher than Italy, about the same as Canada and second only to Germany. So why do we have that financial strength? Well, first of all, the collateralization of our assets are significantly ahead of our debts. But when I look into the reports of the global credit rating agencies, here are some of the things that they're commenting on. They're commenting on our good operating performance and our financial strength. They're commenting on our 10-year returns and the strength there. They're looking at the solid investment track record or the solid investment returns. And you know what else they're looking at? Governance, and their comments there are about risk management, about corporate governance, about risk management practices, and about our rich risk management framework.

And the words they use are strong, prudent, and good. That to me is very important feedback and I hope that it's helpful to you that OMERS is receiving that external validation. Today, OMERS is impacting so positively on this province, $15 billion of contribution to our GDP – that's up about 11%. $4 billion in tax revenues for our provincial and federal governments and contributing significantly to jobs. 135,000 jobs, and one in 11 households positively impacted by this pension plan. This is a chart which I've been showing at every Annual Meeting now for about 10 years. And there are two lines on this chart. The light blue line which slopes up from bottom left to top right is the funded status of the pension plan. And I drew this chart back to 2012. And the reason why I started in 2012 was that was the point where our funded status had hit a very low point of 86%.

And since then, year after year, we've been grinding higher and higher and higher. And in every single one of those years, since 2012, the financial strength of OMERS have improved, either through a higher funded status or through a lower discount rate. And the discount rate is the black line on the chart which slopes down from top left to bottom right. That is the interest rate that we assume to calculate our liabilities. A lower discount rate is more conservative. A more conservative funded status creates greater strength for the pension plan. Greater strength for the pension plan creates greater security in old age for our members. And so today, OMERS is financially stronger and more conservatively funded than it has been for many years. And when I double click into that and I look at the last 10 years and people say, "Jonathan, how was it that our funded status increased from 92% to 99% over that period of time?" Well, it came from a number of places.

First of all, it came from investment returns, which contributed 16% to our funded status. This means the returns that our investors have been able to generate are greater than the liability needs of our Plan. We've used that surplus investment returns to pay down the discount rate, and when we reduce our discount rate, we create more security in the Plan. And about five basis of discount rate costs us about 0.7% of funded status. On top of that, our members and employers have been continuing to contribute to the Plan. The contributions today are calibrated a little bit higher than the minimum needs under the Act. And that means that we're adding to the pension plan. And that has enabled us to absorb some risks which have come our way. In the wake of the pandemic, inflation hit 8%, much higher than our assumption of 2%, and we had to reserve for that and we were able to absorb that shock.

And we've also recently put up a few billion dollars to take into account that human life expectancy is continuing to improve. In 1965, when OMERS was founded, the actuaries made an assumption that if someone made it to 65, their life expectancy would be about 81 years. Today it's 89. By 2045, it will be 91. Now that's great news for civil society, but it's challenging for a manager of a defined benefit pension plan. But congratulations everyone, you're all becoming immortal. (audience laughing)

I have one final slide that I want to share with you, and it is a little bit technical, but it is terribly important. Not only do I observe today a significant increase in the funded status of OMERS relative to our liabilities. I also believe that there is a significant buffer in our discount rate, which is very, very important at protecting the financial strength of OMERS as we go forward. The chart I've put on the screen has two lines. The bottom line in dark blue, very dark blue, is the discount rate that I've already talked about. And here you can see it gradually getting lower and lower and lower as the Board has made approvals to reduce it. The light blue line is the independent actuaries estimate of what the future investment returns with the Plan are likely to be over a 20-year time period. And these are all expressed in real terms, in other words, before inflation. And as you can see, the margin of safety today is larger than at any point that we've seen it in many, many years.

And why is that? Today we are in a much better interest rate environment for defined benefit pension plans. Back three or four years ago, interest rates were extremely low. And while that was really good for people with mortgages and people borrowing money, it was lousy for savers. And as a pension plan, we are savers. And so the better interest rate environment that we find ourselves today, combined with the lower discount rate that we're using on our liabilities, mean that we're funding our Plan in a more conservative way. So that's where we are, that was the last year. I'm going to come back at the end of the meeting to answer any questions that you have. But in the meantime, I'm going to hand over to Blake Hutcheson, our President and CEO and he's going to talk about the future.

Welcome, Blake.

It's a shame that he's so quiet and reserved. Isn't it? All kidding aside, sometimes in life you get lucky as a CEO and you're served up a partner like Jonathan who is numerate, cares deeply, and you can tell by his energy just how much this Plan means to him in every way. Listen, good morning. It's so great to have all of you here today, both in the room and virtually. To all of you, our working and retired members, sponsors, stakeholders, partners and colleagues, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedules, and I can tell you personally every year we look forward to this, particularly the lunchroom because we get to see so many old friends. So for all of you who could make it virtually or otherwise, we appreciate it. Listen, I wanted to use my time this morning to answer the four questions that I'm most often asked these days by members of the OMERS family. And I'll just focus on those primarily.

And the first is how do I honestly feel about the investment market and our recent returns? The second is with all the uncertainty in the world, is your pension secure? The third is how does management feel about what George just referred to, which is this governance review? And fourth, is OMERS going to invest more in Canada? And before I do that, I just wanted to say a few words about the importance of trust. And with respect to that all-important word “trust,” I'll share with you a line that has stayed with me for many years on this topic, which was written by George Shultz, a decorated military and business leader who served as US Secretary of State during some of the most complex moments of the Cold War. To mark his hundredth birthday, a milestone more of our members are reaching these days, by the way, as Jonathan pointed out, he wrote an essay to assert his last important message to the world, after a lifetime of deep experience, titled "Trust is the Coin of the Realm." Paraphrasing slightly for brevity. The quote in this piece that really hit home for me is "When trust is in a room, whatever room that is, good things happen. And when trust is not in a room, good things do not happen. And everything else is details." And as you think about it, I assume you feel the same way. And I ask you to think about times in your life when trust is in a room, whether it's a classroom, whether it's a locker room, whether it's a fire hall, whether it's a union hall, any room in your home, you know it. When trust is in the room, good things happen. When it's not in the room, bad things happen. And my interpretation of this message is simple. Trust is the foundation of progress. And I've learned in my career that business actually travels at the speed of trust. And when it's present, there is no limit as to what good people can achieve quickly working together and when not, even very capable and committed, people struggle to move forward at any speed to achieve good and positive results. I think about that often, particularly today, when somehow it's been made okay for certain people holding often huge titles or positions of responsibility to demonstrate anything but transparent and truthful leadership, compromise and collectivism, human decency and indeed trust.

A reminder once again, that leadership is not a title. And as a result, in my view, it's more important than ever to accomplish great things together for this highly valued and respected Plan and platform, to ensure that all of our rooms at OMERS are designed with and built upon a deep foundation of trust. And you have my solemn promise that we will continue to demonstrate that commitment and do our part to earn your trust and respect and all that we do with every interaction. It is in this context and the commitment that comes with it that I will now share my reflections on those questions that are most important to you. With respect to our 2025 results, many of you saw them earlier and also Jonathan elaborated beautifully today, but they again reflect an extremely challenging environment for investors globally, but I will be candid with you, we, under the circumstances, would say they were respectable, but we were ambitious for more. And while the whole year was tariff and Trump-bumpy, as these headlines illuminate, the final few months particularly were fraught with significant market uncertainty and volatility, affecting our returns in certain asset classes, a few actually large holdings directly and our currency positions. This is not an excuse, it's simply a reflection of our 2025 reality. However, as we have consistently shared with you, cyclicality and volatility are normal and expected components of investing. And the lesson is not to ignore them but prepare for them in advance.

Your diversification, liquidity, and high-quality portfolio is designed to see through difficult cycles and headwinds, protect our downside during such periods, and perform consistently well over time, but not necessarily every year. As evidence, Jonathan pointed out that our 10-year return is 7.1%, which by the way is very consistent with most peers. And our five-year return is 7.7%, which at this moment compares favorably for OMERS relative to all others. We're also on the cusp of being fully funded, which is a true measure of positive incremental outcomes over time, not overnight, against a deliberate long-term strategy. As you heard in 2025, many areas across both your public and private investments continued to find momentum, do well, including public and private credit, public equities, the majority of your infrastructure assets and your real estate business, Oxford Properties. Other areas contributed to navigate a difficult cycle. Globally, private equity is an asset class that has been facing the challenge of higher interest rates, slower exits, in both macro and micro geopolitical uncertainty. And our smaller ventures and growth investments have gone through a really tough liquidity period. But there is embedded value to unlock over time.

And as Jonathan pointed out, this is one data point, the Xanadu, it'll be fun for you to follow, who knows, by the way, how it unlocks over time. But it's a good example of when we plant a seed several years ago, sometimes it can grow to be something very material for the Plan. And in response, we're being even more deliberate about where we deploy capital and with whom we partner, rebalancing to higher quality holdings where possible and expanding the ways that we create value in these complex times. It's tempting for all of us to react to the headlines and focus on results one quarter or one year at a time. That's certainly the dilemma confronting most public companies by the way. But as you know, I often say that for OMERS, unlike a public company, a quarter is not three months, a quarter is 25 years. And the decisions we continue to make remain ones that we feel will deliver over the long term. Staying grounded, disciplined, focused on quality and accepting the true value pays little regard to a calendar year. And with that background, please know that our commitment to you remains unchanged, to build a resilient balance sheet that will endure over decades, taking into consideration our known long-term obligations to every member, present and future, and to generate cash flows sufficient to build reserves and pay pensions again for generations.

And when people ask me how I feel in any particular quarter or year, I remind them again about our long-term strategy. And the truth is often when we're doing spectacularly well in a year or not so well in a year, people say, how do I feel? And you really do need to stay focused, not just by words, but by actions. And here's honestly how I think about it. We set a strategy, you might remember this in 2020, called one, two, three, four, five. And in that moment we said, where are we in 2020? Where are we going to be in 2030? And I really try to discipline myself and my team to focus on where we are against those plans. So one, if you recall, stood for 100% funded and we were hovering around 96, 97% funded in 2020.

And we're today 99%. And I'm very confident that we're going to break through very soon. And the goal was one, meaning 100% funded by 2030. The direction of travel gives me lots of comfort. The second is $200 billion in assets. You started with $105 billion of your money in 2020. The goal is to nearly double it to be 200 billion by 2030. We're on track in that respect. The third goal was to focus on three continents.

At the time we were looking at about 20 countries, we had about 10 strategies. We've narrowed that down to about 12 countries and six strategies. If we cannot be great at what we do for you, we shouldn't be investing your capital. So it's a much more focused three continent game plan today. So that's three. Four is $400 billion. We started in 2020 with $200 billion of assets under management, which means your equity, some debts, and third-party capital. The direction of travel is to double that to 400 billion by 2030. Again, we're on track.

And the fifth is 5%. And as Jonathan said, 5% in real returns translates into about 7% nominal returns because 2% inflation is added to the 5%. And again, when we get 5% real, 7% nominal back to the first objective, we think we'll be 103, 104, maybe even 105% funded. So the truth is, when I'm asked how we are at any given point, I always go back to those metrics and I always go back to that game plan. And everything we do is in service of a 10-year Plan. Now as to the question, given all the uncertainty of the world, is my pension secure? The short answer is we fundamentally believe, yes it is. And these are not a talking point, it is not speculation. It is both a promise and something that is consistently validated by running detailed downside models, decades out for OMERS, cashflow, liabilities, and asset mix.

Further, our discount rate for liabilities is conservatively calibrated. And we have a strong risk team and culture as judged, as Jonathan said, by all four of the world's most important rating agencies. I also want to remind you that pensions for OMERS have been paid on time and as planned every year since starting with a $5 million portfolio nearly 65 years ago. This is never lost on us. Our history is as important as our future. And as Winston Churchill once remarked, the further backward you look, the further forward you're likely to see. Now by the way, this drawing was, my daughter is in her 20s, she's an artist and she did this for me as a gift. The truth is, if I told her it was on the stage at the Annual Meeting, she probably wouldn't, at least she would say she doesn't like it much. I think she'd be pretty proud.

Anyway, I thought I should share that. And I manufactured a quote that could dovetail with it. Again, in the spirit of transparency and candor, I understand why people might ask these questions at times like this. Is my pension secure? And admittedly, this is a very difficult time for any investor. It used to be that one could either be in business or in politics. Now as fiduciaries of your precious capital, we simply cannot separate the two. These dynamics collide daily and are now irreversibly interdependent. And as a result, we now live in a fast paced and uncertain world of intrinsic fragilities, where personality is replacing process, policy speculation is replacing proper planning, old relationships are being questioned, markets get jolted, and investment teams need to be extremely nimble and truly world class to compete for the best deals, ideals, press and people.

Further, we acknowledge that you're all feeling the implications of this daily, with prices climbing at the grocery store and gas station, persistent inflation impacting your loans and other obligations and uncertain job markets. This is all exacerbated by the opportunities and sometimes considerable threats of disruptive AI, new currency and payment alternatives, heightened cyber vulnerability, to name just a few. Coupled with a constant flow of negative headlines and tweets, this all pulls attention towards the urgent and away from the important. However, what I can say with confidence is that OMERS is built for times like these. When markets rise and fall and sentiments swing between optimism and anxiety, your pension does not change in either quantum or certainty. One of the great strengths of the OMERS defined benefit pension plan is peace of mind. In these noisy times, I genuinely hope that that stability is deeply valued by all of you. And protecting it, by the way, is why we exist. It's what motivates me and the team each and every day.

And failure is not an option. I try when I can to travel around the province and to look into the eyes of our members. And today is one of those days, failure is not an option. And how does management feel about the governance review? As mentioned by George, our Chair, over the last two years, this government-led review examined how OMERS is governed and recommended some changes. Most notably a shift from a Sponsors Corporation to a Sponsors Council. And as you know, we're in the midst of that transition now. On behalf of our management, I just wanted to remind you that this is a governance matter and our role since day one has been not to offer opinion, but rather to support the process. And likewise, as we sit here today, our job is not to debate the decision or the decisions that have been made to move forward.

Our job is to respect the framework that's been defined and support our Board to ensure that any change is implemented professionally and well. You have our commitment to work closely with sponsors on a go forward basis. That's a commitment. And of course all of you. We see this next chapter of our organization as an opportunity to actually reset, to improve, and again look forward, not back, with one OMERS, embodying an exemplary level of mutual respect, transparency, timeliness, and trust. A wise mentor once told me that the windshield is a lot bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason. So let's move forward with strength. This is a tremendous opportunity for all of us at OMERS and we welcome it with open arms. The next question is OMERS going to invest more in Canada.

Now as a reminder, and Jonathan shared this, we have currently about 18% of your portfolio invested in Canadian assets. And by the way, you should be really proud of these assets. Some of them highlighted here on the screen. Yet there's been a fair bit of criticism about the big Canadian pension plans that we're not doing enough in this country. And I want to assure you that most of that is directed at other plans, not yours. You might have seen today in The Globe and Mail, the CEO of CPP was talking about their portfolio. They're about 12% by the way, against our 18. And I just wanted to remind you and reassure you that we, even though we get some conversations with governments, we are first and foremost a fiduciary of your money. It is not the government's money, it's not my money, it is your money.

And our job is to invest prudently on your behalf to ensure that all of our 665,000 members have a sustainable, affordable, and meaningful Plan. Full stop. And OMERS is not and never will be an instrument of the state. However, I will say that in the last year or so, we see the Canadian opportunity set gaining momentum, and we are underwriting more investment options at home than we have for decades. Ontario and Canada are now more focused on creating an environment to attract favorable investment rather than attempting to dictate it. And I trust you'll agree, and I genuinely mean this, and I mean it more today than ever, that we live in the greatest country in the world, and we see the medium-term prospects for Canada growing and exceptionalism frankly elsewhere weakening. So stay tuned, but we hope to put more of your money to work in our backyard positively, profitably and well. And some of you may have seen earlier this week I was interviewed with The Globe and Mail and we talked about our ambitions on behalf of you and your capital to put as much as $10 billion of incremental capital in investments in Ontario and across Canada. Provided, by the way, the conditions are right, and we can get the returns that are going to serve you well.

It's also worth sharing that OMERS is having a huge impact in Ontario beyond our balance sheet. And Jonathan hinted at this. Last year, our platform supported about $15.3 billion of incremental economic activity across Ontario, helping sustain jobs, infrastructure and communities. And I'm often reminded when I'm driving through large cities and small towns that our work at OMERS directly impacts one out of 11 households. And by the way, it is incredibly motivating when you count them on the way down the street knowing that the good decisions that we take will impact one out of 11 of those homes. And through our pension services team representing 400 of our great employees who wake up every day serving your needs. We made some notable advancements this year. We broadened access to the pension in 2025, including for non-full-time workers. We've also made paybacks easier, including for members who've taken time away from the workforce to care for others.

You'll hear today from our terrific Chief Pension Officer, Celine Chiovitti on these enhancements and more. I'm also proud of the progress we're making on sustainability. As my extremely able colleague Michael Kelly will soon share. I didn't have enough superlatives in an earlier comment, so I added the word extremely, just it's an inside joke. Our portfolio carbon footprint continues to decline and our green assets continue to grow. In a Canadian context, you often hear the largest Canadian pension plans being referred to as the Maple Eight. Many say that as a pension plan investor, we are the envy of the world. There's so much going for the Canadian plans, we hear it everywhere we go that we out punch our weight class. And I will just tell you that our goal, both within Canada and globally, is over time to make sure that OMERS is the envy of the world.

And it won't happen overnight, but I am confident you're going to start to see it and sense it over time. And I'll leave you with a call of thanks for our great people. I like to think of my OMERS colleagues as our most important asset. I want to thank our team sincerely for their partnership, their hard work and their dedication to all of you. It is a privilege of a lifetime to work with and for them. And of course we feel the same way about working with and for all of you. I also want to share that for 2025, in addition to a plethora of other awards, OMERS and Oxford were again recognized as one of the top 10 best places to work in Canada. And from a separate organization for having one of the nation's top corporate cultures. These recognitions matter, not for the plaques and press, but because strong teams make better decisions and better decisions translate again, not every year but over time, into better results.

And in closing, let me just finish my comments where I began, and that is with respect to trust. We understand that trust is not built overnight or only in the good times. It is earned over time, by honoring one's promises, living their values, and delivering consistently, especially actually when times are tough. To our retirees, your pension is there for you as always. To our active members, your future is secure. And to all of OMERS and all sponsors and stakeholders, we thank you for your continued support. We will always take our accountability to you in all ways, at every level, very seriously. And again, we see the new governance model as a fresh start for a great and cooperative time ahead. And to our Board, many of whom are here today, thank you for your dedication and your extraordinary commitment.

Listen, we know the world is complex and we know the path ahead is not an easy one and it'll require some really healthy choices, a balance of both realism and optimism, good judgment and good planning and frankly, some patience. Yeah, we know we live in this amazing country and province and OMERS has great discipline, dexterity and diversification, and both the advantage of and the proven commitment to a successful long view. We promise to take all of your hopes, beliefs, and confidence in us and do everything in our power to better all expectations in the months and years ahead. Again, thank you for being here today. Thank you for your continued trust. Good luck to you and your families and God bless.

A great video. Good morning, everyone. It is so great to see so many of you here in the room today. You know there's something so special about bringing together the OMERS community. And I use the word community quite purposely because while each and every one of you has your own individual and unique story and past, we are all connected through a common thread. And that is, quite frankly, your decision to spend your career in service of others, and as a result of that, our commitment to each and every one of you to help secure your financial future. And we don't take that lightly. So you know that at the end of your career, when you're done working and you're ready to retire, we're here for you to provide you with a predictable stream of income for life.

And I know we have many retired members in the room and that's really, really important. The other thing that we know is that during uncertain times, those two things, community and predictability, become even more important than ever before. And now you heard Blake talking earlier, the reality is we are currently living through some really uncertain times. I don't know about the rest of you. Show of hands if you've been feeling a little bit more anxious than usual, right? Yes. Not a surprise. Each and every day we are waking up to new headlines that would've been just unimaginable a few years ago. News of war and hate, social media posts that are designed to scare us, to separate us and to polarize communities.

And each and every day all of us are living through this economy and trying to make a dollar stretch even more than ever before. And so it's not a surprise that more and more Canadians are feeling the stress of all of this, and it's becoming even more difficult to save for the future. We know that 66% of Canadians are saying they're saving less due to higher everyday costs. And 38% of Canadians are finding their retirement dreams are undermined by the current economy. How do you save for a future retirement when you can hardly get through every single month today? Now those of us in the room today are extremely fortunate, right? We have the OMERS community behind us. Even through these difficult times, we know that we will be able to retire. We know that we will have a pension waiting for us.

But sadly, less than 50% of Canadians have access to any workplace pension. And as the Chief Pension Officer of this Plan, it's so important that we keep telling our story. We keep putting our head up and being proud of the work that we're doing for members, for each other and for society as a whole. Not surprisingly, if you don't have access to a workplace pension, you're feeling very, very worried about your ability to retire. We know that 61% of Canadians fear running out of money when they retire. Now I want to bring you back to OMERS for a moment. We have 200,000 retired members across the province of Ontario. They didn't need to worry last year. They watched the markets go up and down, but they didn't need to worry about getting paid.

On the first day of each and every month, they know that they have the certainty of getting their pension paycheck. That's our job here. And so I want you to imagine and think about it this way, left to our own devices on our own, we are subject to the vulnerability of the markets going up and down. And we are then subject to just one bad financial decision can impact our future retirement. Because we have the strength of the OMERS community behind us, we know we are $145 billion strong, we have pooled assets, we have professional investors investing across the globe. We are making the decisions for you. And as a result of that, we are a shock absorber for our members. And so same headlines, same news, same difficult situations that we're all living through, but much different outcomes for OMERS members. Last year CANCEA did a research study.

They basically looked at OMERS retired members in comparison to the general Ontario population. And the evidence is astonishing. OMERS retired members reported higher in all aspects of living, both financially and socially. They are 2.4 times more likely to rate a higher life satisfaction. They're 2.5 times more likely to feel financially secure than those without a pension plan. They're better able to absorb a financial shock of $10,000 or more. They reported less stress, they reported better health outcomes, they reported better mental health. On and on and on and on you see the value of the defined benefit pension plan. But I'm not here to say everything is perfect.

The reality is the DB plan needs to evolve, right? Many of the pension plans were born back in the 1960s in a very, very different time, and we need to modernize. I recently came back from visiting with a number of my pension plan peers from nine different countries and we're all paying attention to some big macro demographic shifts. Jonathan talked a little bit about one earlier, and that is the fact that we are getting older, right? We are all, society is aging and this is a phenomena that's happening across the world. Today, OMERS has over 335 centenarians. 335 members over the age of 100 are part of this Plan. In fact, our oldest member today is 106 years old.

Yes, thank you. He's been collecting a pension for over 41 years. So he has definitely gotten his money's worth. And it's honestly one of the most delightful things that I get to do in my job is to celebrate people when they turn 100. Jonathan talked about longevity and putting the dollars on the book. I get to celebrate every single time someone gets their money's worth through this Plan. It's what we're here to do. Canada as a whole will become a super aged country by 2030. So what does that mean?

It means by 2030, one out of five individuals across Canada will be over the age of 65. Yeah. And at the same time, we're having less children. Again, this is a phenomena that's not just impacting Canada, it's happening across the world. And so we're getting older and we're having less children. Why do we care about that? Well, we're at an inflection point when it comes to demographics. We're at this point where at some point we'll have more people who have left the workforce than we do have new entrants into the workforce. And that puts pressure on the system.

Again, this is not just in Canada. Every advanced economy is going through this demographic shift. And countries that will do very well in this environment are those who have strong pension plans, those who have invested in their retirement systems and have put together the social infrastructure to be able to support communities. That is the role that we have to play here at OMERS collectively. So what does all this mean to our OMERS demographics? Well, we've seen a ton of change. My first message is we are growing. And so today we stand 665,000 members strong. The Plan has grown by over 25% in five years. But the type of work and the type of members is also changing.

So since 2023, we have welcomed over 120,000 non-full-time members. Our youngest member today is 14 years old. Yeah. Today my team and I serve five generations of members and we're seeing a significant group of women growing within this Plan. And so one size fits all no longer fits. And that is the difference between OMERS in 1960 and OMERS today. We are evolving and modernizing. We are reframing the conversation. We are relating to five generations of members.

Whether it is your first municipal job, whether you're celebrating your 40th or your 80th birthday, we are here to serve you. Now, interesting data point here – by 2034, the majority of our Baby Boomers will be happily retired. They will be amongst the pensioners who are collecting the pension every single month. And 75% of our members will be made up of a combination of Millennials, Gen Z and Generation Alpha. So what do we know about this population? Well, they are digitally savvy, they care about their money, they want transparency, they want autonomy, they want information, and – contrary to popular belief – they are very interested in their pension. In fact, 85% of people between 18 and 29 have said they're interested in learning more about their pension. Now, when I show up to talk to the 20-year-olds about their pension, I don't necessarily talk about the pension formula. Their eyes start to glaze over. You know, that sounds like it's something for my parents or my grandparents. But when you sit down and you talk to them about money, about accumulating financial wealth, about how they want to experience their future, they really, really care about that and the role that their pension plays in that security.

So you'll see us evolving. We are changing the way we speak. We no longer send out once-a-year big newsletters, 15 pages with a bunch of pension legalistic terminology. Instead, we launched a podcast. We will be releasing season four later this year. We are modernizing our platforms. We're making it easier for members to connect directly through myOMERS to get information simply 24/7. We are redesigning our statements, we're providing more tools so that you can empower yourself and your financial future.

I want to pause for a moment to talk a little bit about the governance review and the work that we're doing with sponsors directly. I know this was raised by George and by Blake. I have the great privilege of working with 14 sponsor organizations to ensure that their voices are embedded in the preliminary bylaws in order to support the Council. I can tell you it's been delightful to be at the table. I know that we have a lot of members here from CUPE. I've seen the T-shirts and I appreciate the T-shirts. I hear you, I hear you.

(crowd cheering) I'm happy to report that we've got great representation from CUPE at the table. Ted Aivalis, Mark Jansen have been phenomenal. I am so confident in the future and I truly believe you are going to have a Council that is more representative, more inclusive, more transparent than ever before. And I look forward to the sponsors and to working with the sponsors in setting that up. Trust is earned in moments that matter. And so I run a pension business. It's a service business. I have 400 employees across pensions. Many of them are in the room.

Can I ask you to stand if you are on my team? I'm going to put you on the spot here. (audience applauding) So we serve 665,000 members across the province. This is the team that travels day in and day out to your communities. They show up at your conferences, they show up at your workplaces. They pay your pensions, they answer your phone calls. Trust is earned. We don't take it for granted. I have been reaching out to my team in small groups over the past few weeks to really get to know each other a little bit better, to talk about our goals and our dreams. And we've been really focusing in on one thing. We've been reading the book collectively that I shared with some of my team members called "Atomic Habits."

I don't know if anyone's read it, it's a really good book. But it leans into this concept of small marginal gains. And the reality is we all want to reach for the big things, right? We want the big shiny things. But what if each and every day we just showed up 1% better? And so we showed up 1% kinder, we made sure our words were 1% more sympathetic. We showed up 1% more present, 1% more focused every day. Could you imagine the difference that the world we could make in this world by the end of the year? That's the challenge I've given to my team.

I think it's important that we continue to earn the trust. We are so grateful for the high approval rating that you've given us and trust us. We work for it every day. We never forget it. With that, I will conclude my comments the same way I started them. The power of community. Now, I can't do anything about the headlines. I can't do anything about the haters. I can't make people stop spreading misinformation.

What I can do is encourage all of you, along with me, in moments that feel chaotic and noisy, when you feel more anxious than you have the day before to stop, take a breath and remember, you are not in it alone. We are 665,000 people strong. We've got you. Thank you. (audience applauding)

I now want to welcome my dear friend Michael Kelly, OMERS Chief Legal and Sustainability Officer to the stage.

Good morning, everyone. Well, it's great to see everybody, big crowd today. It's my absolute pleasure to be up here to talk to you today about our approach to climate. It's a topic that has always been at the top of your mind at these meetings, but it's not just at these meetings. We hear from you throughout the year and at various forums that we attend throughout the year so that we know that this is very important to you and we're listening to you. So I'm going to talk about our Climate Action Plan today and our progress against the goals that we have. I will say, the Climate Action Plan was published in 2023, if you haven't read it, it's on our website. I encourage you to read it. This plan is supported from the top to the bottom of the organization, from the Board of Directors, right down to the frontline investment professionals who execute on it every day.

And that's great for someone like me as the Chief Sustainability Officer, to know that I have that support from the team. Before I get into our actual goals and our plan and our progress against them, I want to step back a bit and just talk about our general approach to sustainable investing. I'll go through this fairly quickly, but our approach to sustainable investing is guided in three pillars. Integration, collaboration, and engagement. What do we mean by integration? It means we take sustainability factors, sometimes called ESG factors, which we'll talk about in a minute. And when we're looking at an investment, we look at these factors to try to determine whether they have something to say about value, about risk, about opportunity in those investments. And then we apply them when we own the asset through its lifecycle in an asset management context to try and improve the ESG hygiene of every asset. Collaboration means we work with people like us, for example, the Maple Eight.

By doing that, we can amplify our voice on key issues like sustainability, disclosures and otherwise that work at a systems level versus an individual company level. And finally, engagement. Engagement is what we do when we own a portfolio company. There's a couple of ways. When we own large public companies, we usually have a small interest, so we do it through proxy voting and other avenues. When we own large chunks of private assets, we often sit on the Board and we have an ability to directly engage with those companies on their sustainability issues. ESG, ESG has become a bit of a politicized term, especially south of the border. So we don't always refer to ESG, but we still use it. We often call them sustainability factors because we find them a good way to organize our thoughts on this topic.

I always like to put up this slide to kind of demystify what ESG actually means. When we created our sustainable investing program, we looked through various environmental, social, and governance factors and what are the ones that really apply to the assets that we own. And these are the typical ones that we would use that our investment professionals, when they're looking at an asset, they'll go through. We've designed all sorts of questions to ferret out for each of these factors, whether they're important to the asset that we're buying. So for example, under the environmental column, climate change is the one that is the first among equals. We look at how climate change may or may not affect that asset, but there's other things under the environmental that may be waste and hazardous materials depending on the type of asset that we're buying. On the social side, we might want to look at how the company that we're looking at fits within its government, or how it relates to its government in the jurisdictions it operates. How are its community relations? Sometimes people refer to this as its social license to operate.

That can be very important to the success of any asset. Health and safety. That can be a very major factor. For example, in infrastructure assets, indigenous rights, particularly here in Canada, if you're doing any kind of infrastructure project, these are often key to the success of that asset. And on the governance side, many things to look at. Anti-money laundering, risk management, cybersecurity, such a big issue these days. So that's how we look at these ESG factors in our investment program. Very quickly, when we say collaborations, we can amplify our impact on things like improving sustainability disclosures, improving climate data by working with others like us. The Maple Eight, the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance works to improve governance practices in public companies.

The Investor Leadership Network is 13 large institutions like us that looks at things like climate change, like diversity, equity, inclusion. How can we amplify our voice with these organizations? So let's talk about our Climate Action Plan very quickly. It's grounded in three major approaches. We want to talk about emissions reductions. We want to talk about climate solutions. In other words, what we're investing in. And we want to talk about portfolio engagement. And we've made commitments against each of those big three themes.

So the goal in terms of portfolio emissions is a 50% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030. That will increase our investments in green assets from $19 billion to $30 billion by 2030, $19 billion in 2019. And that our top 20 highest emitters will have credible action plans, net zero action transition plans by 2030. How are we doing against those goals? The emissions intensity reduction in our portfolio has actually decreased by 65% since 2019. Our investments in green assets are increasing to $26 billion. So we're getting close to that goal. And we've been actively engaging with our top 20 emitters. That doesn't mean we don't engage with the other ones, but we focus on the real high emitters.

And those high emitters make up about two thirds of the portfolio emissions intensity in the portfolio. So we kind of fish where the fish are, as we say, in terms of focusing on those. And again, that's all underpinned at the top right by our net zero 2050 plan. I will say, I said at the outset that we support this Climate Action Plan from top to bottom, and we are not backing away from any of our goals and commitments. Two things I would like to just say before I wrap up, and that is, we have been asked, “You have hit 65% emissions reduction, are you going to restate your 2030 goals?” It is not our intent to restate the 2030 goals. That number can fluctuate up or down. It's based on a revenue, you know, indicator. So it can go up, it's not necessarily linear, but we think 50% is a solid metric. And we are starting next year to think about our 2035 plan.

So one of the goals in our plan is that every five years we are going to make another interim goal. And so the other thing that we sometimes hear about is why don't we divest completely from fossil fuels? So our belief is that the world is in an energy transition, it's not an energy cliff. And so we do not believe, we want to be where is preferably a little bit ahead of that. By comparison, we are a 65% emissions intensity reduction. Over the same period, Canadian societies had about a 23% emissions intensity reduction. So we are ahead of society, that's where we would want to be, but it's not a full divestment of fossil fuels. So I will leave it at that. Thanks for this opportunity to talk to you and I am going to turn it back over to George Cooke to moderate the Q&A. Thank you very much. (audience applauding)

We are now at the point where we have a chance to have questions. It's interesting, we have had about 50 people join us since this presentation started an hour and a bit ago. So we now have somewhere in the range of 350 people in the room and we are still sitting with a little over 3,000 online. Recognizing that, I'm going to ask each of the people that pose questions, please be as succinct as you can with your question because we would like to try to get to as many individuals as we can to address their questions. For the people that are here in the room, there are microphones on the floor, you will see them. Please come forward. For people that are online, you must have gotten the script early because you have already been submitting questions. I have got little cards here that have been handed to me that have come from online. Please continue to do so, if that is what your inclination is.

I am also going to start with an approach where one person, one question will work our way through, if you will. Hopefully, if somebody has got three questions, they will go back in line and we will get those. But I do want to spread it around to try to get as broad a representation of the crowd and members as we can. With that in mind, we are going to go for approximately 45, 50 minutes through, try to finish on time, be respectful of people's agendas. And I am going to start with a question that came in online for many reasons, but it says, "Excellent presentation. Will the video be available after the meeting?" And the answer is yes. We will post the video of this meeting as we often do on our website. And it will be up as quickly as we can get it. I am not sure whether it will get there tonight, but it should be there by tomorrow, and it will be unedited incidentally. And so for those that have friends or colleagues, please refer them there to take a look and listen to what we have been doing.

So let me start. I am seeing a huge line over here – lady in green.

Good morning and thank you. Thank you for that presentation this morning. My name is Yolanda McClean and I am the Secretary Treasurer of CUPE Ontario. You know, for so long, members have been denied a real voice at the SC. Appointed representatives were restricted in their ability to communicate with members and were effectively prevented from fully presenting their interest. And that was unacceptable to members and plan sponsors alike. And it is why a governance review became necessary. The report recommended replacing the SC with a Sponsors Council that provides direct sponsor representation. Now the AC has now been tasked with drafting the bylaws for this new structure. And that work is underway in consultation with sponsors. For CUPE, the principle here is fundamental. Our members must have real direct and meaningful voice in the new Sponsors Council. (audience applauding) That means that our representatives must feel free to communicate openly with members and fully advocate on their behalf. Workers bargaining rights are fundamental and protected under the charter. Meaningful representation is not optional. So now my question, will the AC commit to a new Sponsors Council in which workers have a direct and effective voice and in which worker representatives are free to communicate with members and advocate fully on their behalf without interference or restriction?

Thank you for that question. I'm actually going to take that myself rather than hand it off to one of my colleagues. The AC was asked by the government, directed by the government, if you will, to prepare the draft bylaws related to how the Sponsors Council will function once it's up and running. We chose, it was our decision, as to how we went about that task. We chose to actually reach out to sponsors and to the new group of observers that the government has introduced into the equation to try to better address the whole question of representation. We chose to invite them to the table to work with us to produce those bylaws. Celine referenced the individuals from CUPE that were at the table. They're still at the table. That process is working. My understanding is it's working well and productively. We will at the AC be very respectful of that work. We will submit a set of bylaws to the government as requested. The government will do whatever the government does with it when they get them. But very clearly we share the concern that you've articulated that that transparency was not present for most members with respect to many issues related to their pensions and the contributions they pay. And that has to change. So I'm very hopeful that the new world will be a far more transparent world than the one it's replacing. Time will tell, we will do our best to ensure that there's an appropriate level of transparency for Plan members.

Can I go over this way please?

My name is Benjamin Wojenkin. I'm a 37-year member of OMERS. And it's an investment question. Will we invest in any film productions as there are so many happening in Canada. And the other question is do we own the 407 and what's the percentage? (audience laughing)

Unfortunately the 407, those have been in it from the beginning, have done very well. OMERS isn't a participant. We don't own any piece of the 407, but it's done well for those who have. You know, we actually own some film studios through our real estate holdings. To the best of my knowledge, certainly in any significant way, we haven't invested in the film industry. It doesn't mean we wouldn't. There's certainly no prohibition. We're open to good ideas. Generally speaking, because of the size of the Plan, those investments are really small and incremental, and it doesn't move the needle for the Plan. So it probably explains why historically we haven't done much of it, but if you've got great ideas, we're open to it. There's certainly no prohibition against any good idea, particularly in this great country of ours. So we have an open mind. Thank you very much.

Forward this way – Martha.

Martha Hradowy, proud president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. I think this question is for Celine and all of the amazing work that you have been doing to close the retirement gender gap for women. OSSTF represents about 20,000 education workers that are part of the OMERS Plan. I would say 95% of those are predominantly women. And we know that the pay gap continues in 2026. So could you please just touch on the work that OMERS is doing to close the gender retirement gap?

Thank you Martha for the question. I feel like I've been talking about it so long, but I said to myself, I'm not going to include it in my presentation today and maybe I should have. It's such important work. And so you know, I said about 60% of OMERS Plan members are women. We see that proportion growing substantially over the coming years. And the reality is there's still a pension gender gap in Canada as well as in other economies. Women on average make about 18% less in their pension than their male counterparts. And part of the reason for that is that we take more time away from the workplace to have and care for children. By the way, you heard me talk about fertility. We actually want women to have and care for children. It's really important for society. And so last year we went down the path to look at some of our systems and say, how can we make purchasing service more accessible? And so we worked with over 1,000 different employers. Today, members have a lot of options to continue to contribute to their Plan while they're away. We've made it more affordable. We've stretched out the timelines. We're also really talking to women about finances and really trying to increase confidence when it comes to making those financial decisions. And so lots of targeted communications. You'll see podcasts, you'll see more tools and information on our website. Stay tuned because we have a whole new session coming out for younger members that we will be launching later in the year. But thank you for the question, Martha.

I'm going to take one of the questions that's been sent in from virtual attendees. Steve asks, "What is OMERS exposure to private credit and do you feel confident that the portfolio is marked to present value?" Jonathan, you're the lucky one.

Thank you. Great question. So just for everyone in the room, what's private credit? Private credit is where OMERS lends to businesses, much like a bank would lend to a business. And so when people need money, they have an option of going to the bank or they have an option of coming to an organization to us. So that's what we mean by private credit. Today, private credit represents about 14% of the portfolio. There's been some articles in the news which are probably leading to the question is, are there issues in the ability of borrowers to pay? Our portfolio is very well diversified. The overwhelming majority of the names in the portfolio are making their interest payments on time and are strong financially. So the answer to the question, am I satisfied that our private credit is fairly valued? I absolutely am.

Stay there. Well, another one from online. "How are OMERS investments impacted by US tariffs?"

Well, you know, that's a really, really good question. The majority of companies who are impacted by U.S. tariffs have value chains that crisscrossed the border. The classic example that we know about that in our province is the automobile sector, where a car and the parts that make it have historically crisscrossed the Canadian-U.S. border many times during the manufacturing process. We did a deep dive study into our investment portfolio as soon as the noise of tariffs started to come on the scene, where actually a feature of our portfolio is, not a whole lot of our portfolio is exposed to the kind of businesses that crisscross the border. So the primary impact on OMERS has actually been thankfully, quite muted. But it's the secondary and tertiary impacts that of course we worry about because when you have tariffs, it affects the way people feel. It impacts the way businesses plan. It impacts the way businesses invest. And so for sure we've been impacted by those secondary and tertiary impacts. But as I say, the primary impact for us, thankfully quite modest.

Thank you. I'll go over it this way to the lady on my right.

Thank you. My name is Krista Liang. I've been paying into OMERS for 16 years now. Last OMERS AGM I asked a question about our involvement with the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships. I was told clearly OMERS does not politically lobby for privatization. And I was told you're not political actors, just passive investors who might step in if governments choose to privatize. I'm seeing that that story might not hold up. We saw that OMERS is now a signatory to an MOU between the Canadian and Australian pension funds. An agreement that media reports back to mean unlocking infrastructure investments. Let's be clear, when pension funds organize to unlock markets like we don't think that's passive, it's shaping the conditions for privatization. So you published a release saying that this is for the best interest of Plan members, but you have not released the MOU itself. So members are being asked to take it on faith and trust that our money is not being used to influence public policy, even as a language intended suggests otherwise, we're not passive contributors to this Plan. This is our deferred wages. If OMERS is entering into agreements that could influence whether or not public assets are privatized here or somewhere else, members have a right to see exactly what is being agreed upon in our name. So the question is simple and it demands a real answer. Will OMERS release the full MOU to Plan sponsors and Plan members? Yes or no? If no, please clearly explain why members are being kept in the dark about agreements made with our money that could directly impact public services, public assets and our community.(audience applauding)

So the reference that's been made, Prime Minister Carney and the finance minister and a group of delegates from Canada, including several of the CEOs of Canada's Maple Eight pension plans, some Canadian bank CEOs alike, were asked to come to Australia for a two day event early March. I attended that meeting. You have about $10 billion of your money in Australia approximately. So it's a big investment market for us. And so we were all invited to come to the meeting and there was a memo of understanding that was signed by the Australian pension plans and the Canadian pension plans. It had nothing to do with trying to extract assets that are owned by the government for privatization. I can assure you that. And the MOU was (A) non-binding and (B) just a cooperative agreement for the Canadian pension plans, which are large in their market and the Australian pension plans, which are large globally to interact more to see if we can't do more business together over time. And so the document was nothing more than that. And the truth is, it is a public document but not to be distributed publicly. It's a known document, but it's not by the governments and asked to distribute. I can give you my word, there's nothing in there that says we're encouraging governments to download assets. We actually had another call from CUPE, our Chair called one of your members back to have a conversation. I'm happy to have an off-record conversation with you. But the document itself we can't share. And I can assure you it was nothing about downloading public assets or anything alike. It was a cooperative agreement between our two respective pension plan communities to try to do more together. Which I think, and I hope and I trust many in this room, will agree is exactly what we're here to do. And we own Bruce Power, a significant infrastructure asset. It's your single biggest investment. It's done extraordinarily well for all of you. We've been good custodians of that asset. And so that's the backstory. If I could release it to you, I would, lawfully we can't but I give you my word that that's the case.

Please over here.

Good morning George and the rest of the committee. Bill Harford, past president of MROO, but I'm more or less speaking on my own.

Well it's nice to see you back.

I'm a nightmare to actuaries because I'm still living. I go back as far back as, I think it was 1967 at the City of Oshawa when Bill Davis got cash for life when we got the OMERS pension. So I've seen a lot of changes over the years. But two things I'd like to see looked at for current and future retirees are two things. One which would impact all future retirees is the Canada pension offset. Back in the mid-1990s, we had lobbied at that time, I was with the CUPE union at that time as well as my late colleague Glenn Burns. And we tried to get that offset reduced, and I believe it was, it might have been Paul Haggis at the time. We did in fact get an attempt to reduce that Canada pension offset and only to find out about a year later they couldn't do it because something came up and they couldn't apply it. If that Canada pension offset was reduced a little bit more, it helps out on the pensioners when they apply. The second thing I'd like to see would be how do we get the contribution rates reduced a bit for those men and women who are currently working? These people are already suffering from the extreme cost of living and they're not able to come here and talk to you about it. But I'd like to see that OMERS is doing something to try to reduce that cost of living or not the cost, the compensation of 15%, get it reduced down more into the area like we see in HOOPP and in the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. It seems like this carrot's been held in front of my nose since ever 2000 that we're going to be coming up to full financial solvency and whatnot. And I've been waiting. Now don't get it too soon because maybe that's what's keeping me living. (audience laughing) But I'd like to see something done to try to help those people because not only does it help the people who are in the workplace, but it also helps the employer. And as most of us know, our employers have a political impact and when our pensions are too high and they look at this payroll tax, it becomes a problem. So we have to try to do something I think. And I'd like to thank you for the things that you have done on behalf of retirees and active members, the AVCs, I was just talking to a person this morning about how wonderful that has worked out for him, and I've heard that from many others. The other thing I'd like to thank is Celine. When I, a few years ago, I don't know how long ago, I might have dark hair then, was to try to get retirees so that they could come in because I had known people who had worked in the workplace their whole life as a part-time employee and never could get into the OMERS pension. And now they can. So I thank you for that. (audience applauding) So my two requests with the Canada pension offset and a reduction in compensation is something I'd like to see you work on and try to apply sometime within the next decade because I'm going to be here for that long. (audience laughing)

Thank you, Bill. Okay. I'm going to try and address your two questions. So first I think what you're talking about is integration with CPP. So I just wanted to make sure I'm going down the right path. And so essentially the way the OMERS Plan works is essentially integrates with the Canada Pension Plan. So if you think of a full career being about 35 years, if you contribute over 35 years full credited service, you're expected to take combined between OMERS and the Canada Pension Plan about 70% of your best five years of income. That's kind of how the formula works. Now the reality is, and I talked about it earlier, we created the formula way back in the '60s and the whole world has sort of changed and evolved. And so we are mindful of that. I do think some things have shifted, Bill, we no longer have a 35-year cap so you can continue to contribute and earn more. We're now living longer. And so it sort of all comes together. But I'm active to the concern and trust me, we are looking at all of it. I think that combined with your second question, which is a really good point. People pay a lot of money out of their pay deferred wages to go to this pension plan. And so what is the right balance of contributions? Again, that's something that I'm excited to work with the new Sponsors Council on as we go forward. You heard we're almost 100% funded. You also heard from Jonathan that the world has changed, we're living longer, that adds more liabilities. And so there's always this sort of push and pull between what is the right level of contributions in order to sustain the payment, the pension promise, as well as build up some reserves. And then what do benefits and contributions look like? And so all of that will be under the realm of the new Sponsors Council. We have direct representation of 14 different sponsor organizations and five observers that will be joining us at the table and exploring all of that to make sure that this Plan remains modern, sustainable, affordable, and meaningful. And I thank you and I promise you, you will be around when we come and consult with you as we're doing the work.(audience applauding)

Question from online. It's a real estate strategy question. (1) Are you investing more in Canadian real estate? And (2) is retail still a good strategy in real estate investing?

Okay, so Oxford Properties, you own 100% of it. It's honestly one of the great real estate companies in the world. In 2010, it was a $17 billion business. Today it's a $70 billion business between your capital, debt and third-party capital. And it's a significant player and investor here in Canada. Some of the assets you own in Canada: Square One, Scarborough Town Centre, Yorkdale, Banff Springs Hotel, Jasper Park Lodge, Chateau Lake Louise, probably 30% of the main office buildings in downtown Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, industrial assets, hotels. So you own a very, very diverse portfolio. That business delivered well over 10% for about 10 or 12 years until 2020 as Jonathan pointed out. And we've had to dig it out of the hole since COVID. And as you saw last year, the returns are back, and there still is some noise in the system around the world in real estate. But trajectory-wise, it's moving in the right direction. So I think you'll be really proud of Oxford on a go-forward basis. In terms of the, and by the way, Canada's not, it's about, it's probably at 25% of your entire portfolio market. And we are today looking at more opportunities. There's a few office assets we're looking at. We're developing industrial assets across the country. We're enhancing retail assets. So we're very much invested in Canada. We'll do a lot more in Canada. And we've done extremely well in this country and we'll continue to use it to our advantage and your advantage. Retail, it's interesting, about in 2009, we owned about 30 to 35 big retail assets. And we decided that long term we only wanted great ones and any secondary market or secondary asset we should dispose of. So we set up a public company and we got rid of all but eight and we sold them beautifully before that market started to decline. The assets you hold today are among the best in the country. Yorkdale is the third most productive shopping mall in North America, for example. And you own it with AIMCo. So our retail assets are doing extremely well. Not all retail assets are. And so yes, George, to the question, we're doing lots more in Canada. Your retail portfolio in Canada is doing well. We'll continue to do well largely because we're focused on the highest quality assets, not secondary markets. So I hope that's helpful.

Thank you. Go back over here to my right please.

Hi, my name is Katherine Grzejszczak, I've contributed to OMERS for 15 years as a paramedic. My question is specifically for Blake Hutcheson. Blake, you've been on record as lobbying for more federal spending in the defense sector. Also you've signed on to support the Toronto bid for the Defense Security and Resilience Bank, which would see low interest lending for defense extended to NATO and NATO-allied countries. The reality is, and I think somebody alluded to the anxiety that folks feel, is that NATO and its allies like Israel are engaging in wars of aggression and genocides. It's well documented that Canadian companies are part of the supply chains for munitions and for other military equipment that is being used in these conflicts. These conflicts result in the targeted killing of workers in other countries, including paramedics like myself. In the last three years, we've been inundated with images of hospitals and ambulances being struck by the Israeli Defense Force, both in Gaza and now in Lebanon. There's also education workers here. Two months ago, the U.S. bombed a girls school in Iran, killing 170 people, the majority of whom were girls between the ages of seven and 12 years old. The first part of my question is how do you justify pushing for increased federal spending in the military when this results in diversion of tax transfers from the very services that municipal workers in this room deliver? And secondly, why are you lobbying to invest workers’ deferred wages in an industry that makes us as workers complicit in genocide and crimes against humanity? (audience applauding)

So first of all, we have amazing respect for what you do and deep support for the paramedics. So thank you for your service. The questions, I'll take them two at a time. First of all, Canada's on record. I'm not lobbying Canada to spend in defense. So I'll just clarify that point because that was a supposition of your comment. As Canadians, as we watch, the federal government today has said they're spending 2% of the GDP on defense. So that's roughly a $3 trillion Canadian GDP, 2% is a roughly $60 billion spend today. And the Canadian government said they're trying to get to 5%, which will be $150 billion between now and I think 2034. So Canada has suggested it's going to start spending between $60 billion today to $150 billion, five to 10 years hence. That's the commitment they've made to their NATO allies and that's the commitment they've made. It has nothing to do with anything that we have said or done. So then the question for all of us is if there's $90 billion of additional spend a year on defense, what does that look like? And should OMERS be investing in anything that resembles defense? And the definition of defense is going to change dramatically because historically it's been a lot of the things you think about. In the future, it's going to be about protecting our northern border. It's going to be about supply chains, it's going to be about real estate and logistics. And so they're in the $90 billion annual additional spend, there are going to be all kinds of goods and services and companies started that support a government initiative, not our initiative, a governance initiative. So when I say we would be open to spending in defense, it doesn't mean we're going to start investing in munitions or getting behind one country or another country. It means our country's economy is going to be largely focused on things that are defined as defense. We own industrial warehouses. They may provide some of the supply chain. We own ports around the world. If there's a northern port, perhaps OMERS can invest. So I think it's important we frame it properly. And in business investing your money, I've found in life, you have to say what are the trends and what can we be really good at? And if by the way, it helps this Plan, we invest very prudently through all the sieves that Michael Kelly has shared with you. And we can do things that inch forward our country under that broad definition, we are open to it as a Plan. But some of the other add-on suggestions you shared with us, I would disagree with, including the fact that I'm lobbying the government for additional spend. So I hope that's helpful. (audience applauding)

Sir, please.

Thank you. Thomas Golightly, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. I have a couple of comments. First I'd like to acknowledge all of the work that has been done. We would acknowledge it's been a busy couple of years at OMERS with governance reviews taking place and now implementation. We would say we feel heard on a regular basis, just in the regular course of working with OMERS, but considering how challenging the times are right now, I do participate on the work group that's been referenced a few times in terms of helping to get the new Sponsors Council up and running. And we really appreciate the engagement from Celine and her team working with her, Laura, Mike, all of her team have been amazing in terms of engaging with us. And not only just listening, but we've already seen in the meetings we've had their team coming back with changes. So we are being heard and we are feeling like our input is being taken seriously. So first comment is, thank you very much, we do appreciate that. And then the second comment is I'd like to bring greetings from my mother-in-law. She was a school secretary for over 30 years. She's an OMERS retiree and living her best life. Her primary investment strategy is going to the casino, (audience laughing) but she can afford that investment strategy because OMERS has a different investment strategy. So thank you very much. (audience applauding)

I hate to break it to your relatives, but I don't think we're going to be investing in casinos. (audience laughing)

We're investors, not gamblers.

I have a question here that's come in from online. "Does OMERS invest in precious metals? If not, why not?"

Absolutely. So the answer is absolutely. We have a diversified investment strategy. Currently, you see our balance sheet segregated into seven strategic asset classes, one of which is public equities. Within that asset class, we do allow our investment teams to invest in commodities broadly. That includes precious metals, it includes base metals, it includes agricultural commodities. Those are on strategy for us. One of the things that we have underway right now, I talked about it in our presentation, is something called an asset liability study, which asks, what is the optimal asset mix that we can have to generate the returns to pay pensions into the future. And when you kick off a study like that, the first question you ask is, are there any asset classes which we should be highlighting for specific interest? Commodities is one of those areas that we are considering amplifying this year. Commodities are interesting. They don't pay a coupon, they don't pay a dividend, they don't generate income. But what they do do is they act as a very handy hedge against inflation. And with inflation likely on the rise, there's likely more of a role for commodities in the OMERS books. So great question. Yes, we do. Watch this space.

Okay, we're going to go this way, please.

Oh, thanks so much. David Kidd, CUPE member, the City of Toronto retiree and OMERS proud member. (audience applauding) This question is mostly going to go to Michael. For my generation and for the new OMERS members under 30, we do want to check the climate portfolio. This year is going to be the third hottest year on record worldwide. And the concerns we have is stranded assets. In the middle of this Iranian war, countries in Asia and in Africa are looking to extend their renewables, not oil and fossil fuels that the Prime Minister and others and the current President of the United States would like us to extend our investments. So we just would like to hear for both us, meaning us retirees who are concerned with our future and our grandkids, but also for the future of our young retiree members. And for Blake, ICE creates armaments in the Toronto area and they have promised that they're going to be at the FIFA games in Toronto. And we want to make sure that OMERS is not investing in any armaments that ICE and other armament manufacturers are involved in. (audience applauding) And yes, we appreciate that you said that trust is the starting point. We appreciate that. That's what this is today. This is about a trusting relationship. So please give us a transparent, straightforward answer from both yourself and Michael. Thank you so much. (audience applauding)

Yes, thank you for that question. Yeah. I totally agree on your comments around the world is warming. We're watching. You know, the goal of the Paris agreements was to keep the global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. And we're dangerously perilously close. I go to the COP conferences every year and there's lots of people at those that are working on the energy transition. At the same time, you know, I talked last year about this three-legged stool, the energy trilemma, three-legged stool, the importance of security of energy supply, right? We're all using, this building's probably being heated by gas right now. We need to make sure that people can drive their vehicles and heat their houses, et cetera. The other leg is sustainability. We need it to be green. And the other is affordability, right? And so we're in an affordability crisis. You know, I also thought the consumer carbon pricing was an interesting policy choice. Like most economists would say that's the way to do it. You find out that there's a negative externality in this whole equation that is the pollution. Nobody's paying for this pollution. So you put a price on it and let the market figure it out. But what happened, that ran up against affordability, right? And so the people of the country didn't want to pay more for fuel, for example, even though there was a rebate coming in and the policy died. So these are all the headwinds and tailwinds that we're watching every day. Look, the good news is even in the United States, we are building out the power grids. 85 to 90% of that new power supply coming on is renewables. You know, you don't hear that a lot. All the United States is going the other way. But we are building out this infrastructure so that at some point the fossil fuels that are still required today will greatly diminish. You know, there still may be a role for gas, the International Energy Association post 2050, but it will be reduced. So those are the things we're watching. We are a long-term investor, but we also have to think about the medium term and the short term. And so that's why we don't have a complete divestment from fossil fuels because we don't think that's where society is at. Do I wish we were going quicker? I do personally, but as our Prime Minister says, we have to take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be sometimes. And that's how we have to think about the investments. But we're proud of the progress we're making on our Climate Action Plan. We're proud of our contributions to think of all the money we've put into Bruce Power, which allowed us to decommission the coal-fired power plants in Nanticoke that caused all those smog days back when we were a bit younger. And our capital really helped to do that. So I hear you. I'm with you. I know about our kids and everything else. It's not just because I have kids. I care about everybody's kids in the next generation and we're doing our best, but we have to watch where society's going and you know, look, let's get on society as a whole to make that change as well. (audience applauding)

And on the question of munitions, the answer is we haven't for a long time invested in anything directly on that front. That's a commitment in the past. It's a commitment in the future. Now I'm sure someone could say you own Porter Airlines and they would transport munitions. There may be public companies or other places where we have a minority position that someone could say, my categoric statement isn't true. But the truth is, we haven't invested anybody directly. We do own some international corporations that someone may suggest there's an extrapolation, but our commitment is not to invest directly. And again, when we see the definition of defense with a $150-billion spend in this country, it'll be so different than the definition we've historically lived with as a society. And an awful lot of the things that we see will be infrastructure- related, real estate-related. In no way are we focused on the things that you have asked about. And happy to again talk offline if that's helpful.

I'm just going to go back this way if I may.

Thank you. Scott LeGassi, CUPE Local 136, 19-year member with the Town of Oakville. As our members increasingly work standby shifts and corresponding overtime, is there any discussion underway about making mandatory overtime earned while on standby pensionable? (audience applauding)

Thank you. So in my understanding is in 2025 that was submitted as a suggested Specified Plan Change. Again, once the work of a new Council is underway, my expectation is it's something that will be explored. And I think what you're speaking to is the fact that right now, essentially overtime is not considered pensionable. It needs to be in order to be considered pensionable, it needs to be regular routine. But what we’re talking about now is sort of, there are some sectors within emergency workers, whether it's paramedics, fire or police, where it's no longer necessarily an optional thing. You are required to be there. And so that's the context, I believe, which the submission was made. And we will definitely be looking at it. It will be up to the Sponsors Council to make the right decision based on all the information in front of them.

What about all of our municipal workers, including those…

Yeah, I think the way it's submitted – sorry, the expansion was, does it apply to all? The answer would be yes. However we're looking at it, if it's considered mandatory overtime than it would apply across all sectors within pension, within OMERS, employers.

I've got a number of questions that have come in online and they're actually very specific to the Plan. I think in recognizing our time and where we are, what I'm going to suggest we'll do is we'll put a piece together, put it in the newsletter, respond to those type of Plan questions fully so those who don't hear their question being read, we will respond to it. We're just going to do it in a slightly different way because I've got lineups of folk here and we're running out of time. So let's try to go quickly and see if we can't get most of your matters dealt with. Over here, please.

Hi, Will Walsh, CUPE member and emergency medical dispatcher. I did want to comment that when President Hutcheson said in his presentation that the money in this fund is not the government's, it's the payees, that point was very well taken. But this is further to my sister Krista's question. This is my first OMERS AGM, so perhaps I am misunderstanding, but this MOU with Prime Minister Carney, when you say it is both public and confidential and it would be illegal to disclose, how do you explain that contradiction and what is the applicable legislation here? (audience applauding)

No, so it's, we signed a non-binding document, firstly. Second of all the request of all the signatories, it's publicly known that we did it. We had a celebration, we cut a ribbon. It was broadly celebrated. The document itself, I'm not at liberty to share. That's the reality. Now again, if people want to get in a room and I can share in good faith what's behind it, I think I'm able to do that. I'm just not allowed to liberate the document. It's honestly nothing to hide. But that's the reality.

Let me just expand on that for a moment. Clause 7.6 in that particular document prohibits the public disclosure of the document by all the signees and the two governments. So it's not a questionable point. It's not that we're not exercising our discretion. For what it's worth, when a letter came in from your CUPE Ontario President in this regard, I returned a call to him three, four, five days ago indicating that I'd be more than happy to have a conversation to try to explain these points so that you could get it, understand what the dilemma is that we face. Blake's characterization of what this document is, is 100% accurate. I've read the thing from one end to the other as a result of the inquiry from Fred. And again, I've already got an offer on the table to sit down and try to talk to you guys about it. But there's nothing in there that is dealing with this privatization concern that you have. In fact, privatization is a word is not mentioned in the document. I hope that helps.

This is two middle powers having a conversation about doing more together. That's the essence of it.

Over here please.

Hey there, I'm Phil Battison. I'm a proud OSSTF member for 15 years. I represent 830 custodians, trade staff, cafeteria workers, as well as the infant toddler preschool program out of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board. I'll try to go quick. Sorry. I know there's a lot of push for to buy Canadian, buy local. We talked today investments real estate. I wonder if there's any other examples you can give about buying services, supplies and other business tools and resources locally whenever possible, that OMERS is doing.

So thanks for the question, Phil. When I look at the kind of services that OMERS purchase as an organization, they fall into a number of very simple categories. We spend a lot of money with consultants, typically we try and source consultants who are local to the markets in which we do business because they have the best firsthand knowledge. So of course when we're investing Canada, we're working with Canadians, but typically when we're investing overseas, we're investing through those knowledgeable people. I think that really makes sense because I think it aligns their expertise to the problems that we have. The other major spend that we have is in IT. IT is a large expense for any organization with the complexity that we face. In reality, they are all global businesses. They all have teams here in Canada. And so we are seeing that operating quite nicely across our portfolio. So where we can, we do, but of course we do it where it makes sense for the quality of the advice and the service that we're getting. Hope that's helpful.

Okay, let's go back this way.

Hi there. My name is Kayla. I'm an educational assistant with CUPE and I've been paying into the Plan for 14 years. Our investment in Blake's CEO compensation was $6.3 million last year. A 7% increase from the previous year. As a Plan member, I make in a whole year what Blake makes in two days. This has been a long trend at OMERS, all while the 10-year investment in return is below (audience applauding) the Plan's 10-year benchmark set by OMERS themselves. That to me is not a good return on our investment. How long does the AC think it's politically sustainable for Plan executives to be seeing such dramatic improvements while members whose deferred wages these are, are facing an affordability crisis every day? (audience applauding) This has been going on for 20 years. Will it go on for another 20 more? When will we receive a return on our investment? (audience applauding)

I'll take that. The whole exercise of considering executive comp, not only for the CEO, but for our lead executives is a matter that goes through our HR committee and it ultimately goes up to the Board for approval. When we do that, we have to be very cognizant of the reality of what people pay. And, excuse me, I'm sorry, I was kind enough to listen to your question, maybe you can be kind enough to listen to the answer. (audience applauding) The process we go through is incredibly comprehensive. It is supported by external advisors who provide context, fact sets, comparable earnings and comparable circumstances, et cetera. There's deep consideration that goes on in these sessions and interestingly enough, in our annual report, it is fully open, fully disclosed, fully described, unlike many of the other large pension plans in this country who, some who disclose nothing, some who disclose much less. But our level of transparency and the logic for the decisions that we've made is very clearly set out there. I suggest you read it, you'll inform yourself and you'll understand that it's both appropriate and fair.

George, can I just want to comment on one thing not to do with compensation, but to do just with the return on investment. For everyone in the room today and for our audience joining virtually, I just really, to clarify the DB, because the return on investment point of it, 70 cents of every dollar paid out to pensioners is coming from the investment returns. And so a few years ago I tried to do a demonstration of, if you look at the average pension in pay, about $34,000, and you multiply that by what the expected is. And so our oldest pensioner today has received a pension for over 40 years. If you do the math, it's about $2 million. And so I just think it's really, really important going back to talking about the value of DB, it's about the fact that when you retire, what you're paying for is the fact that you're going to get a pension for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live. And I think words are just so important, especially when we're in a society where less than 50% of Canadians have access to this plan. And so it really, really is important that we start to really appreciate and demonstrate the value of a defined benefit pension plan. (audience applauding)

Please.

My name's Anne Sutherland. I'm retired from the Toronto Reference Library. I wanted to ask about your investments in Canadian renewable energy, aside from nuclear, especially with the AI energy needs, whether you're planning to invest more in things like solar, wind or perhaps nitrogen from like transitioning oil wells to produce nitrogen instead.

Before one of my colleagues' responds, I just want to compliment you on your perseverance. I was present when you made a presentation to Toronto City Council a few weeks ago on this topic, I think perhaps?

No.

It was a librarian from – I guess there's something with librarians then. There was a librarian who came forward from the Toronto Library people and had made that presentation. Over here. All right. You didn't disappoint me, you came. Anyway, I just compliment you for being consistent and putting your views forward. Who's good, Michael?

Yeah, I mean, look, we have a lot of investments outside of nuclear in renewable energy. The largest platform we have is something called Leeward Renewables, which is a platform of wind and solar across the United States. I'm not sure we have a ton of investments in Canada, but we are so open to being invested in that space. We have a number of transmission lines, which are enabling transactions in terms of renewable energy. So we like the space. We're highly invested in it and as I say, we see it as a growth area. I mentioned that the build out, for example, in the United States on renewables is about 90% of new electricity production coming online. And we're certainly open to those kinds of investments in Canada. We like transmission lines. A lot of this is done in our infrastructure team. I'm not sure about the last thing you mentioned about nitrogen and otherwise, but we're also looking at new technologies, whether we do that maybe through our ventures teams, or otherwise, our infrastructure team is usually focused on those large, big-ticket items. But we're also kind of across the spectrum looking at whatever opportunities might come out of the energy transition. We're trying to change a system over time that's been here for 150, 200 years. And so there's trillions of dollars of investment opportunities across the world, including in Canada. So very keen on that, other than nuclear for sure.

Wasn't Leeward one of the ones that was being cut off by Trump.

I wouldn't know. I wouldn't say it was cut off by Trump, but things, they're changing their rules. There was the Inflation Reduction Act there, which created a large number of tax incentives. The great thing about, which are being repealed, slightly. Notwithstanding that, renewables are still the main driver of new power in the United States. Part of the issue is there's just an absolute demand for power and part of that is coming from data centers to be honest, right? So what we're seeing in the world is just an absolute need for power. So while these tax changes didn't necessarily help Leeward, it doesn't make it unprofitable because the beauty about things like solar now is that the investments stand on their own. When I was in the infrastructure team 15, 20 years ago, we worried about wind and solar because they relied on government policy to make it profitable. But that's not the case. Now, the cost of solar panels in particular have come down. And so they are profitable on their own without the government policy, which is why you see it happening. And they're still trying to build gas plants, but the queue for equipment and gas is a very long queue. It's hard to get that online. So renewables are certainly have a tailwind in that respect. And you know, as I say, we go and we look at an asset. We look, this is what integration is all about. We look at what the government policy is saying. We look at where consumer demand is, we look at where is it a global market? Is it a local market? All those things go into making that investment decision. And there's a lot of tailwinds around renewables right now, notwithstanding all the politics that you hear. So we're optimistic about that. Thanks Anne.

Please.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. My name's Reverend Dr. Karen Harrison, and we've just celebrated the 44th anniversary of the Charter of Rights. And I'm proudly Ukrainian and indigenous. I come from a Toronto police family. My grandfather was one of the first indigenous members of the Toronto Police Services. So I'm happy that our Toronto Police family is part of OMERS. My question is in regards to our rights as indigenous workers here. I'm a healthcare worker. Recently, we were apprised that many of us who are women workers have worked 30 years and been underpaid and we're owed 30 years of back pay, including also the abuses we have experienced as indigenous women workers in this country. Often in very horrific conditions because of our indigenous ancestry. Two points. I hope that OMERS will help us translate those earnings that we are owed from our employers over into OMERS. And secondly, I hope that next year we can have an in indigenous elder blessing this meeting on this beautiful land. My ancestors fought in the war of 1812, and it would be very beautiful if we could have an elder open up the meeting. Thank you very much. (audience applauding)

I'll respond to your second question, if I may. Let's talk about it and see if we can find a practical way to do it. My question over here, somebody.

Maybe I'll start and maybe Celine can talk about your specific question, but (speaking foreign language) for your question. So I'm the executive sponsor of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance Employee Resource Group at OMERS, which we started about three years ago, and that's to support our indigenous employees at OMERS. So Celine can talk to your specific questions, but at OMERS we do recognize the calls to action and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in particular call to action number 92, which is the corporate call to action. And we're working on our own Reconciliation Action Plan, which I hope we can talk to you at some point in the near future. And we're also very interested in investing in the indigenous economy. We've done so in a number of ways. We've, through Bruce Power, we've got a partnership with the Saugeen Ojibway Nation to develop medical isotopes. And so we're invested with SON in that partnership, both through our investment of Bruce Power and they also raised a bond financing to finance their equity interest, which we invested in as well. On the investment side, we've also been involved in projects that involved many First Nations communities. For example, NextBridge Infrastructure built a transmission line from Thunder Bay to Wawa and that we were a major partner in that development, which included an economic participation rights for the First Nations communities along the route and an equity participation at the end of that project. So we're very invested in our relationships with indigenous communities. We've had the late Murray Sinclair come to talk, speak with us. Tanya Talaga, Roberta Jamieson. So we're with you. I'm personally invested too. My wife is First Nation status Indian, and so my kids are sort of last of the line, so I'm personally invested in this, and so I hear you, but I don't know how to answer your question on the specifics, which maybe Celine can.

Well, I'm happy to come and find you after this. So the short answer is if there's retroactive pay due, we'll be happily work with the employer and the union and yourself to ensure that it's treated properly as pensionable. We do it. We haven't seen anything going back 30 years, but certainly with Bill 124, we just recently did it with a number of employers in Newton. So I'll give you my card at the end of the session. (audience applauding)

Mark.

Thanks George. I'm Mark Baxter, the President of the Police Association of Ontario. We proudly represent all of the police, uniform and civilian employees in every municipality across the province. I have the honor of sitting as part of the governance review that's taken place. I'm very fortunate to be in the room for the policy discussions on the development of the new bylaws. And Celine touched on that process a little bit earlier. And one thing I wanted to say, as I get to my question, to our friends in the room who are saying, you know, and have shirts that say that they want to be heard, you are being heard in that room. That room, CUPE has fantastic representatives, as do all of the sponsors. Mark Janson as from CUPE National as Celine stated, and Ted from 416 are in the room, and are among the most engaged members at that table. And the work that we're continuing to do, I think everyone, all of the sponsors at the table would share the sentiment that as we continue to meet, we continue to be encouraged by each other in the consensus that we're building and the bylaws that we're building for the new Sponsors Council and are quite encouraged by the work that's happened to date and where this is going to land. My question is to Blake. Blake, I really enjoyed the article in The Globe this week. As a very proud Ontarian and Canadian, it was great to hear that you have confidence that OMERS can and will invest more into our great country. And so my question is, what are you seeing as the most exciting opportunities right now to invest in our home market?

Okay, thank you Mark. It's interesting. Canada is 2% of the world's GDP and we're, today about 18% of your Plan is invested in Canada. And someone might turn around and say, isn't that too much? Because if we're only 2% of the global GDP and life as an investment professional says diversify it, do we have too much? And we would argue that not at all because it's our currency, you pay into it in Canadian currency, we pay your pension in Canadian currencies. We have deep, deep relationships across this country where we can partner and get access to ideas and thinking and financing that's unlike any other place in the world. And so the conditions have always existed for us to do more in Canada. And frankly for the last 10 years, there haven't been opportunities to do more. There hasn't been a condition when we weigh investments in this market versus other markets around there, there hasn't been the same level of belief in tomorrow and there haven't been as many opportunities in this country. So we've actually atrophied a bit from a little over 20% to 18%. What's changed now, Mark, is we're actually seeing the seeds of a healthy economy get planted. And when you plant seeds, it sometimes takes a long time. We're not saying it turns overnight. We're seeing a pro- business friendly refrain in most provinces across Canada and at a federal level. And we're seeing dialogues that take place that hadn't taken place encouraging us to do more. And I'll take housing for example. There are significant tax incentives now that didn't exist with CMHC financing with a break on HST with fees and dues and levies that are being reduced. And we're building some new housing stock in Scarborough. We're building some new housing stock in Mississauga. But those current conditions mean that we can focus a lot more on housing and we're not in the housing to sell business. We're in the rental housing business, including some affordable components. So there's an area that that's encouraging that we hadn't seen those conditions in a long time. We look at the supply and demand fundamentals in office in downtown Toronto, and they're about as tight as they've ever been because companies are starting to believe in this country. So we're seeing opportunities on that front. We're seeing infrastructure enhancements at Bruce Power. We continue to reinvest, but also around some of our existing assets. We're seeing conditions now that we think we should put more money into. So I've just not seen for probably a decade, a more encouraging dialogue. And it's coupled with when we look around the world, a lot of the countries we've historically invested in, as I said in my speech, the exceptionalism there is waning in certain instances. And when we see the size of the mortgage being put on, you know, over time United States, for example, with this new bill, you go, okay, is it time to bring some of our money back from the US and into Canada? And we feel it's that time. So we're seeing it in equities, we're seeing it in private credit and public credit. We're seeing it in real estate, we're seeing it in infrastructure. Haven't seen it as much yet in small businesses or private equity, but we also have a pipeline that's bigger than it has been. So all those things are encouraging. (audience applauding)

It's an interesting dilemma to face. We're about 15 or 20 minutes over time. We have people that have questions. We're prepared to stay here and answer them, but we're not going to be offended if somebody else had made commitments based on a two hour meeting and goes away. So let's keep going. Please, let's not add to the people that are coming to the lineups. And I just would ask people to, if you can, without compromising what it is you're trying to do, get to your question. We'll try to give you, if you can give slightly shorter questions, we'll try to give you slightly shorter answers. With that challenge, please see if you can meet it.

I'll try. Hi, my name is Leslie Cook Greene. I'm a member of CUPE 4705, a municipal worker in Sudbury, and I'm also a member-at-large on the CUPE Ontario Board. So with that, nearly almost 50% of the membership or 50% of the members are OMERS, or sorry, let's take this back. Almost 50% of the members that pay into OMERS are CUPE members. How can CUPE effectively represent its members when it does not have access to the underlining analyst model or rational behind major Plan decisions? In the context of recent governance review, there is a growing expectation for transparency, accountability, and strong oversight in public institutions. Workers are paying into this Plan, they're carrying the risk. And right now they're telling us clearly they want a say. What concrete steps will you take to ensure members and the representatives are no longer shut out of decisions about their own pensions? Our members want to know when you're meeting to discuss our new bylaws, what are you doing to ensure that the confidentiality clause is removed so all our members can actively help to make the decisions that will effectively change or will affect their deferred wages? (audience applauding)

I'll give this to Celine in just a moment, but the concern that you share and you articulate with respect to transparency was one of the prime reasons that the government undertook the governance review that it did. And it came forward with a series of, I think, very responsible recommendations, some of which are in place, others are coming that I totally believe will satisfy those needs and concerns. But Celine, you can be much more specific. It's difficult to give an absolute answer because it's still a work in progress. But if you follow the policy direction that has come from the government, the concerns are going to be addressed.

I think I'll just keep my answer very short to say we hear you. So again, Ted and Mark are at the table and we're right now looking at the very topics that you're exploring. And so I think the fundamental difference as a sponsor is there. The sponsor is there at the table and will receive information and so stay tuned, but your voice is being heard very, very clearly at the table.

Please sir, you've been very patient.

Thank you. My name is Michael Reyes. I'm a street outreach worker with the City of Toronto. Very proud street outreach worker serving our homeless and street involved neighbors in this great city. And I feel very privileged to be able to be here alongside my CUPE Canadian Union of Public Employee siblings and everybody here who's a member of OMERS. As a first generation Canadian, proud Canadian, Latin American Latino, it's very, very, it's not lost on me that to whom much is given much is required. And advocating for the working poor people who I work alongside is really, really important for me. To Celine's point about the importance of words, you know, someone mentioned about overtime and the word mandatory was used, and the employer sometimes has a different interpretation of what mandatory is, right? So I'm wondering if, you know, I'm so glad that you're giving us the platform to be heard and there's this, you know, this new sense of transparency. We can bring things and have a dialogue to improve our participation in OMERS and the benefits of it. Will it be possible to identify words like mandatory when it comes to the fact that for a lot of working poor people, it is mandatory and becoming increasingly mandatory to work. I mean, in order to survive in the city, a lot of people that I work alongside, live in community housing, are just one or two paychecks away from, you know, literal destitution and encampments. And the eviction rates are unbelievable. So, you know, for a lot of people it's mandatory to work at overtime sometimes, you know, I've had to work 16 hour shifts just to be able to pay my national student loans and this and that. So will that be something that can be considered. You know, the language, the words and what it means in like a social context?

Thank you. I really appreciate your comments. My commitment would be to reach out to you. I think it's really important for us to your point, to understand the workforce that we're here to represent. And you know, what I'd said earlier is that the world has changed, (audience applauding) the way people work has changed. The requirement to do more with less is putting a stress on everybody. And so I think as we're having the conversations, really understanding the job classifications, what it means to work in the different sort of schedules is critically important. So 110% we will consult and get that information. Thank you. (audience applauding)

Okay, over here.

My name's Arlette Carrier and I'm a CUPE member, OMERS contributor, and I work at Children's Aid Society. I just want to say before I ask my questions, I have a three part question, but before I do, I just want to say to Mark, you're right, we do have great CUPE members at the table and because of that, we're all here because we get information shared to us and we get to know more about our pension and we get to advocate for it. So that's why we're here is because we do have strong people at the table and we want to keep them there. One of the questions I have is, will OMERS be making any investments in the Ring of Fire? And when considering such investments, will OMERS ensure that the companies and proposed projects will obtain and maintain the free prior and informed consent of indigenous people? And the third part to that is if OMERS decides not to invest in the Ring of Fire with that MOU, you say, trust us. So we're trusting you. Let us know, is the MOU going to allow Australia pensions to invest in things that OMERS will not be within Canada. (audience applauding)

So the answer on the Ring of Fire. I'm not aware that we're invested in anything there yet, but we might. We go through our investment processes and our ESG processes, and I mentioned about indigenous rights. So yes, the Supreme Court has defined what free prior informed consent means. We have the UNDRIP framework that kind of sits on top of that as well. So those are the things that we would be looking at. And you know, these can be tricky issues, but in the past maybe these were more a box-ticking exercise than they're going to be going forward. And so we want to be on the right side of that and making sure that free prior and informed consent, is more than just that exercise and that it's real and meaningful. I wasn't in Australia for the MOU, but I would say too that I think it's being a little bit overblown about, this is our government looking at Australia. We're very similar in many ways, right? We're similar in terms of our population size, our natural resources and we do invest in each other's economies. Blake mentioned we have $10 billion in Australia. The world that we live in means that sometimes the middle powers have to really start working together because you've heard Mark Carney's speech and Davos about hegemons and otherwise. And so I think this was, you were there [Blake], but I think this is an exercise in middle powers trying to band together to see how they can work together on issues to frankly protect their sovereignty and to work as middle powers together in a world where our multilateral institutions that we've relied on as a middle power seem to be, I don't want to use, say disintegrating, but diminishing. And so honestly, I think it was in that spirit that that MOU was signed. I'll leave it at that.

Please. I now found the librarian, I think.

Yes. I am persistent, George, I'm still here. I'm Lee Ramsay. I'm a retiree member and I have a climate question. We've all been reading in the news that the federal finance minister has been meeting regularly with pension plans about investing in new energy and infrastructure projects that the government is calling nation building. Can you please confirm that OMERS will not be investing in LNG terminals, oil and gas pipelines, or any other project that expands or prolongs the use of fossil fuels? (audience applauding)

Hi Lee, it's nice to see you again. Yeah, there will be major projects. You know, there's LNG, there's existing LNG that's already built. I've said we don't have an exclusion on, the exclusion that we have is on projects or companies that have a material revenue from coal. So I can't stand up here and say that we will never do it, but you know, it's going to be a, it'll be a high bar to get through the ESG assessments. That's not to say they won't, or that they will. Gas might be different than oil, but I can't stand up here and say that never, because our Climate Action Plan talks about the transition that we're on and that the role that traditional fossil fuels still plays in the environment. It can be a high bar to get through, Lee, if that comes forward. I can't say never. If we do it, it'll have gone through many levels of hard thought and through our governance processes. But again, we believe in our Climate Action Plan. We believe in the path that we're on. We believe in Canada as well. And it's an interesting time that we're in. Thanks, Lee.

Thank you, Michael. I had a conversation when Lee was present at the City. Lee, my sentiment that I tried to convey to you at the time in the discussion respecting new pipeline builds, greenfield developments of that sort would have an incredibly small, virtually zero chance of being something that would make sense for us to take part in. Your version is largely driven because they have fossil fuels. Whether I share that or not as irrelevant, my concern with those types of investments are the risks associated with them, not only because of the climate aspect, but because of the financial aspect and the fact that they take years to build across many changes in government, which usually cause tremendous losses and overruns. That's not the type of asset that we've been invested in, and I can't see why that would be the case going forward. Again, I guess you can never say never. I may not be here, but they don't make sense to me, for someone like us if that helps you.

Please.

Hello, my name is Sonya. I'm from CUPE Local 54 Ajax. This is my first time here. I'm a real newbie at all of this, so indulge me a minute. Two questions. First one is, can you explain to me how OMERS is connected to the provincial government and their say in what we do? I'm not really clear on what part they're playing in that. And then the other question I have for the lady on the panel, Celine, thank you, is you mentioned that women on the pension plan historically get paid a little bit less than men. And considering that a lot of us who are working as OMERS, that pay to the pension are single women who are heading households that are really, really struggling, I want to know what you see as the potential timeframe for either bringing us up to that 8% I think is what you mentioned, or if that's the case and we can't get there, then maybe we should consider paying 8% less. (audience applauding)

So let me try first on your first question. The OMERS Act that establishes us the way we are is a piece of provincial government legislation. So quite seriously, we exist at the pleasure of the government in the sense that it's their legislative authority that created us and it's also their legislative authority that allows us to govern. So that's what the connection is. They have historically taken a pretty, once the legislation was established, a jointly sponsored pension plan was created. They've taken a hands-off approach in most instances. I fully expect that's what they'll do in the future as well. There was an intervention, which ironically, many sponsors welcomed. Intriguingly, some of those sponsors then criticize the government for intervening even though they asked for the intervention. That contradiction is one that has always puzzled me to some length. But the bottom line of the relationship is we exist at their pleasure through legislation. Your answer, your question.

I have a complicated answer to your question and I would say we touched on one part. And so the pay, the gender pay gap from a pension perspective is very, very longstanding and historic. And it doesn't just impact Canadians across the entire world. And so if you think of like what are the factors that have contributed to it, three main ones: historically women have been given more part-time and precarious work. Historically, women have been paid less. And historically women have been away from the workplace more than their male counterparts to have and care for children. It's the third systemic one that we have an ability to really take action on, in saying that our OMERS system as a whole, how can we make it more equitable so that when women go off on pregnancy, parental leave, number one, they understand the impact that it does if you don't have credited service. Number two, how do we make it more attainable for them? And so how can we spread out the timeline for paying us back as long as possible? And number three, instead of working directly with employers, can we work with members themselves to continue to contribute over time? And so we've really been focusing on that and education. And I'm optimistic that all three of those reasons are improving. And there's lots of information on this through the pay equity commissioner office, Kadie Philp has a ton of information on this. It's progress and I kind of go back to what I was saying in my speech every single day, how can we get 1% better? It's not going togoing to happen overnight, but I'm confident that we're down the right path. The second part to your question about different types of pensions. Look, I'm optimistic and I'm very, very much a believer that we can get there and working together. But again, we need to have the right voices in the room to be able to make progress.

Thank you very much for your answer. (audience applauding)

Okay. So, are you in line? No, you're the photographer. Okay. (audience laughing) So I'm going to end this session with two remarks that came in from those that are online. Kate says, "A big thank you. As a new administrator, I was thrown into the deep end and was able to understand how to administer with the help of the pension administration team. Amazing people. Thank you." I think it's important that we recognize that sentiment. (audience applauding) And from Susan who retired at 55, "A big thank you for a steady and sturdy pension." (audience applauding) I think that's a great line to end on. Thank you for your attendance, for your interest, for your patience. Look forward to seeing you roughly a year from now. You will find, as I indicated earlier, this will be, you'll find this online. And for those people, particularly those online that issued a lot of questions that came in here that were very specific to the way the actual pensions work, we'll publish something so that you get your answers to those types of questions. They'll obviously be shared with all Plan members. Thank you very much for being here. (audience applauding)