Today, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced that Cathy Cranston was appointed Board Chair, starting next year:

July 16, 2026 – Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is pleased to announce that Cathy Cranston will be appointed Board Chair, effective January 1, 2027. She has been an esteemed member of the board since 2019 and currently serves as the Chair of the People & Compensation Committee and as a Member of the Investment and Enterprise Risk Committees. 

Ms. Cranston’s appointment was made by the Ontario Government and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, who are the plan’s co-sponsors. She will succeed current Board Chair Steve McGirr when he retires from the board at the end of 2026 after successfully serving his full term.

Ms. Cranston built a 32-year career in progressive roles at BMO Financial Group, most recently as Treasurer. She previously held senior roles including Head of Financial Strategy, Capital and Funding, and Chief Financial Officer, Private Client Group. Over the course of her career, she held executive roles in investor relations, wealth management, risk management, capital markets and corporate banking.

“Cathy’s history of senior leadership and deep experience in financial services makes her an excellent choice to step into the role of Board Chair for Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan,” said Mr. McGirr. “I would like to thank the Ontario Teachers’ Federation and Ontario Government for their engagement and collaboration in appointing the next Board Chair and for their longstanding commitment to sustaining good governance at the plan.” 

“I am deeply honoured to assume the role of Board Chair at the end of the year and to build on Steve’s tremendous leadership and the legacy of those who came before him,” said Ms. Cranston. “Steve leads the Board with integrity, steadiness and a clear commitment to Ontario’s teachers. I look forward to working closely with him and the rest of the board in the coming months as I transition into the new role, as well as Jo Taylor and the entire executive team as they continue working to deliver the pension promise to Ontario’s teachers.”

In addition to her role at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Ms. Cranston is currently an independent board Director for Toromont Industries Ltd., Canadian Tire Corporation Limited, and Canadian Tire Bank. She holds a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor (Honours) of Commerce from the University of Manitoba and holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

About Ontario Teachers’
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is a global investor with net assets of $279.4 billion as at December 31, 2025. Ontario Teachers’ is a fully funded defined benefit pension plan, and it invests in a broad array of asset classes to deliver retirement security for 346,000 working members and pensioners. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on LinkedIn.  

I normally do not cover board appointments, but OTPP's board has a legacy of having very strong chairs.

From appointing a respected former governor of the Bank of Canada, Gerald Bouey, as the founding chair, to Eileen Mercier, who was appointed back in 2007, to Jean Turmel, who replaced her in 2015, to Steve McGirr, who replaced him in 2018, the chairs at OTPP have always been highly respected, very accomplished professionals.

Ms. Cranston is no exception; her resume speaks for itself, which is why she was chosen for this venerable position. 

People do not realize the amount of work required from board members, but I've seen it firsthand; they need to review an insane amount of material and oversee the activities at these pension plans.

No doubt, it's a prestigious honour to sit on these boards, but don't kid yourself, a lot of work goes into it.

The Chair has to orchestrate all this and lead the Board, have a firm understanding of all the critical strategic initiatives taking place, and ensure that the organization is fulfilling all its objectives.

The position carries huge responsibility, but Ms. Cranston has strong board members to help her in this role (see their bios here).

She will also work with a strong management team that knows its mission and is clearly aligned with its members.

Let me end by congratulating Cathy Cranston on this important nomination and wish her much success.

Below are a couple of excellent recent discussions featuring OTPP's CEO Jo Taylor. First, in this episode of School of Thought, Jo sits down with C.S. Venkatakrishnan (Venkat), CEO of Barclays.

Second, in another episode of School of Thought, Ontario Teachers’ President & CEO Jo Taylor sits down with Katie Martin, Financial Times Markets Columnist and co-host of the Unhedged podcast. Drawing on more than two decades covering global markets, Martin shares what she has learned from speaking with investors, business leaders, and policymakers through periods of change and uncertainty. 

Great discussions, take the time to listen to them (I learned that Jo studied Russian history, fascinating). 

William Melhado of the Sacramento Bee reports CalPERS reports one of the strongest years of investment returns over the last decade:

California's largest public pension system reported on Monday a net investment return of 14.8% over the last 12 months, one of the strongest years in the last decade.

Bolstered by a particularly successful year in the stock market, the California Public Employees' Retirement System now has 85% of the money to cover its future pension benefits, CEO Marcie Frost announced Monday morning at the board of administration's offsite meeting in Monterrey. The reported returns are still preliminary and will be finalized in the coming months.

The massive pension fund's assets totaled more than $637 billion as of June 30, the end of the fiscal year. The strong returns, which were led by public and private equity, were higher than last year's returns of 11.6% and the assumed rate of return of 6.8%.

The retirement system's funded status has improved since 2016, when the Public Employees' Retirement Fund had less than 70% of the money needed to pay retirement benefits.

"An 85% funded level is great compared to where we started, but we're not quite there yet. It's not full funding," Frost said during her opening remarks. "We cannot afford to become complacent or assume the market will always keep rising just because it did yesterday."

Improved status is result of several changes

Frost, who has been with CalPERS for ten years, said that the system's improved financial standing is a result of several changes, including decreasing the discount rate and diversifying the fund's portfolio.

CalPERS' discount rate, which is the fund's assumed rate of return, was lowered to 6.8% in recent years.

"These were hard decisions because they meant employers and members would pay more into the retirement and would not be receiving additional benefits for those increased costs, but they were necessary decisions to support the pensions rightfully promised to our public employees for their years of service," Frost said.

Of the pension fund's asset classes, public equity performed the best with a preliminary return of 24% over the last fiscal year. Behind that asset class, private equity investments resulted in a 17% return.

"We have greatly benefited from the fact that the stock market has continued to rise. Our global equity portfolio still makes up the largest single category of the fund," she said.

The fund's other investment categories, private debt, real assets and fixed income, reported investment returns of 11%, 6.3% and 5.9% respectively.

'Tuning out the noise'

Frost thanked the board for "tuning out the noise" related to CalPERS' private equity investments, which have come under criticism from stakeholders and California lawmakers in recent years. Those critiques included a recent independent investigation, funded by a group of CalPERS retirees, of the fund's private equity investments. That report blamed the pension fund's underfunded status on systemic "governance failures" and paying Wall Street managers too much money to handle private equity investments.

In her comments, Frost singled out a bill that died earlier this session, which would have required public pension funds in California to disclose information about its investments in private equity. She said that legislation would have hampered CalPERS' ability to invest in private markets and could have led to increased costs for members and employers.

"Investing in the private markets gives us potential to earn higher returns while spreading our risk from the often volatile public stock market," Frost said.

Darcy Song of Top1000Funds also reports CalPERS’ public and private equity reset shapes performance:

CalPERS is continuing to reap the benefits of an overhaul in its public and private equities programs three years ago as strong performance in both asset classes powered a double-digit return for the fund in the last financial year.

Public and private equities are the biggest allocations at the $637 billion fund, representing 36.8 per cent and 19.3 per cent of the portfolio respectively. They returned 24.1 per cent and 17 per cent respectively in the year to June 30, CalPERS said in an annual update. It delivered a 14.8 per cent return for the financial year on a fund level.

Both programs underwent significant transformation in 2022 in a bid to improve performance and CalPERS said their benefits continue to manifest in the portfolio.

In listed equities, CalPERS has been redeploying capital to active strategies since the end of 2022, said Steve Carden, investment director in the fund’s global public equities department overseeing active equity strategies, in a presentation to the board on Monday.

CalPERS’ active equities portfolio now represents 40.8 per cent of the public equities book, with its market value surging from $15.8 billion at June 2022 to $109 billion at May 2026. The active portfolio’s excess return against the benchmark also meaningfully lifted from a five-year average of 52 basis points in 2022 to 131 basis points in 2026.

Carden said the success of the program came from deploying to markets and strategies where active management has a proven edge.

“The success rate outside of the US is much higher and one of our focuses is to be in less efficient markets, so that means international and emerging markets. But we do have a couple of strategies that are global in nature, so they have the US as well,” Carden said.

Active equity strategies are organised into three buckets: quantitative enhanced index, multi-factor – both of which are internally developed and managed – and traditional active, which has quant and fundamental strategies.

“In the traditional active we have externally sourced strategies but we implement some of them internally with models so that we can have lower cost and operational efficiency,” Carden said.

CalPERS also emphasised its strict approach to active manager selection, which managing investment director Simiso Nzima said led to “a running quip [within the team] that it’s just as hard to be selected as one of our managers as it is to get into Ivy League colleges”.

“We’ve looked at the numbers, the selection rate for Ivy League colleges is about 5.2 per cent, and the selection rate for the active equity team is about 5.3 per cent,” he told the board.

Standardisation of the manager selection process a few years back means CalPERS was able to compress the selection timeline from 12-18 months before the overhaul to around nine months now, Carden said.

Another edge the fund says it has is a strong internal team that can negotiate favourable fee structures with active managers.

“We do feel like we pay fair when the performance, excess return is strong, but we want to pay as little as possible when it’s not,” Carden said.

“We’ve moved towards more base plus performance structure with very low base fees. Last year, we can in at 34 basis points overall for the [active portfolio], contrasting that with 60 basis points or more for off-the-shelf fees.”

Private equity switch-up

CalPERS initiated a “turnaround” of the private equity program in 2022 underpinned by “manager selection, lower-cost structures, and diversification” – a plan which is bearing fruit, the fund said in the annual update. In a presentation to the CalPERS board in June, Anton Orlich, deputy CIO of private markets, said the fund’s PE roster spans 134 managers and 421 funds across different strategies. Buyout is the biggest component, representing over half (57.3 per cent) of the program, followed by growth (31.6 per cent) and venture (6.4 per cent).

Orlich said that an important pillar of the turnaround has been to set consistent PE commitment pacing of about $16 billion per year to avoid a replay of the so-called “lost decade” of PE, referring to the period of 2009-2018 where CalPERS had less than $8 billion in annual PE commitment.

CalPERS is also pivoting towards a total portfolio approach and since July 1 has officially adopted a reference portfolio of 75/25 equities to bonds. A key feature of TPA is the so-called relative value principle where investments in different asset classes need to compete for capital against the total fund objectives.

But chief executive Marcie Frost said the PE program is likely to be somewhat insulated from capital competition, flagging at an industry conference this February that the PE team needs to continue to “operate more independently” and protect its ability to commit.

Another aspect of the overhaul is the diversification away from large buyout strategies, reducing the percentage it represents in the portfolio from 46 per cent in September 2022 to 33 per cent in March 2026 mainly via secondary sales.

Through secondary purchases and new commitments, the combined percentage of growth and venture in the portfolio lifted from 20 to 38 per cent through the same period.

Elsewhere in the financial year results, private debt delivered an 11 per cent return, while real assets and fixed income delivered 6.3 per cent and 5.9 per cent respectively. Annualised returns for the five-year period ending June 30, 2026 stood at 6.83 per cent; the 10-year period at 8.57 per cent. 

Mona Dohle of Net Zero also reports CalPERS ‘on track’ with £100bn climate commitments, CIO says:

CalPERS reported an investment return of 14.8% for the past fiscal year, largely driven by robust returns on equities and private market holdings. Private equity alone delivered a net return of 24.1% over the past year.

In 2023, CalPERS pledged to commit $100bn to climate investments whilst aiming to halve its carbon footprint by the end of the decade. Speaking from the fund’s annual offsite meeting, CIO Stephen Gilmore told Net Zero Investor that some $60bn had been deployed so far and that the fund remained on track to meet its targets.

Among other initiatives, CalPERS has committed $5.8bn of its portfolio to its customised public equity Climate Transition Index strategy. In private markets, CalPERS has invested in vehicles including TPG Rise Climate (private equity and infrastructure funds), West Street Climate Credit (Del) LP, Generation IM Sustainable Private Equity Fund II (A), B Capital Climate Fund I, LP, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners V USD Feeder SCSp, Brookfield Global Transition Fund II-B, LP, and others.

Private equity transparency push

Speaking at the fund’s annual offsite meeting, CEO Marcie Frost attributed the strong performance largely to a change in how the fund approaches private equity. “Shifting our focus from traditional buyout funds to venture growth and mid-market funds, and making more co-investments in private markets, gives us the potential for higher returns, truly driving growth and job creation in California, the nation and the world,” she said.

However, she also cautioned against moves to increase disclosure levels for private market allocations. “This year, our discipline has been put to the test; we had to push back against efforts to put politics over pensions.”

Her warnings were directed at Senate Bill 1319, the Private Equity Sunshine Act proposed by Democratic Senator Dave Cortese, which would have required Californian pension funds to disclose greater details on fees and asset performance.

“We will always stand strong for transparency, but we will resist efforts like Senate Bill 1319, which would have seriously affected our ability to invest in private markets and would have led to billions of dollars in increased costs for employers and members,” Frost stressed.

Total Portfolio Approach

CalPERS’ latest performance data arrives as the fund embarks on a shift towards a Total Portfolio Approach (TPA), replacing its traditional Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) model.

While the shift could potentially facilitate greater flexibility to invest in private markets, Gilmore said it would not have a direct impact on climate allocations. “You should think about that climate strategy, sustainable investment strategy, as being integrated within the total portfolio approach. So you shouldn’t really see much of a change there. All the investments we make in those areas should justify a place in the portfolio,” he said. 

Adam Ashton of Cal Matters also reports CalPERS just had one of its best years in a decade. Why it matters to taxpayers:

California’s largest public pension fund just had a banner year, riding a soaring stock market to record its second consecutive double-digit annual investment return.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced Monday that it gained 14.8% on its investment portfolio in the 2025-26 financial year, more than doubling its target of 6.8%.

CalPERS Chief Executive Officer Marcie Frost in remarks to the board described the return as the fund’s best year since 2014, excluding 2021 when markets rebounded from a crash caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

“Our team has maintained a disciplined approach to building the health of the pension system, and our improved funded status shows this effort is paying off for our 2.4 million members,” she said in a written statement.

CalPERS finished the budget year with a portfolio valued at $637.1 billion — about $80 billion more than a year ago.

The investment return is an important number to California government agencies because they have to cough up more money to cover losses when CalPERS comes up short.

CalPERS is considered underfunded because its assets are worth less than what it owes in total to the people who earn and receive benefits through it. Its assets are now valued at 85% of what it owes to members.

That number is also a milestone in CalPERS’ recovery from its losses during the Great Recession. CalPERS’ assets were worth about 68% of what it owed to members a decade ago before it began a set of policy changes that effectively required government agencies and public employees to pay more toward their pensions.

The earnings report comes at a moment when public safety unions are urging lawmakers to boost retirement benefits for police and firefighters for the first time since former Gov. Jerry Brown scaled back retirement perks with a 2012 law. The big number could make legislators more confident in saying yes to the unions and modifying Brown’s pension reform law.

Some groups have been urging CalPERS to simplify its investment strategies in the interest of making more money faster, which would relieve some pressure on government agencies and taxpayers. That criticism came up in last year’s CalPERS election, where several unsuccessful candidates characterized the fund as underperforming.

Two former CalPERS board members now involved with an organization called the Retired Public Employees Association — Margaret Brown and J.J. Jelincic — have focused on the pension fund’s stakes in private equity, investments that sometimes include high fees and uncertain values. They supported a failed bill in the Legislature this year that would have compelled CalPERS to disclose more information about those investments. 

“These are very good results, however you need to think about how you got there,” Jelincic told the CalPERS board. “You expanded high risk private equity and you moved into higher risk segments within that asset class.”

Last year the CalPERS board adopted a so-called total portfolio approach that empowers Chief Investment Officer Stephen Gillmore to make decisions more quickly and in the interest of the overall fund rather than specific asset classes — such as private equity or real estate. The policy directs CalPERS to keep 75% of its portfolio in equities and 25% in bonds.

Frost and Gillmore view private equity as an important segment in the portfolio. The pension fund formally opposed the legislation that would have required more transparency about private equity, which the fund projected would have cost it billions of dollars in missed opportunities.

“Investing in the private markets gives us potential to earn higher returns while spreading our risk from the often volatile public stock market,” Frost told the board.

CalPERS earned a 17% return on its private equity investments last year and a 24% return on its investments in stocks. The S&P 500 climbed by 21% over that timeframe.  

On Monday, CalPERS issued a press release stating it posted a 14.8% preliminary investment return for fiscal year 2025-26: 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Strong performance in both its public and private equity portfolios helped the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) achieve a preliminary net investment return of 14.8% for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2026, the pension system reported Monday.

The 2025-26 fiscal year return exceeded both last year’s 11.6% performance and the assumed 6.8% rate of return set by the CalPERS Board of Administration. It is also CalPERS’ highest mark in five years and represents a four-year trend of higher year-over-year results.

The Public Employees’ Retirement Fund (PERF) had $637.1 billion in assets as of June 30 and a funded status of 85%, up from 79% at the end of fiscal year 2024-25.

When Chief Executive Officer Marcie Frost arrived at CalPERS in October 2016, the PERF was 68% funded. The funded status represents the total assets in the fund compared with the pension benefits it is obligated to pay in the future.

“Our team has maintained a disciplined approach to building the health of the pension system, and our improved funded status shows this effort is paying off for our 2.4 million members,” Frost said. “We will maintain this focus as we build toward full funding, resisting external distractions that could increase costs or force us to forgo investment returns.”

In recent years, CalPERS has increasingly diversified its portfolio into alternative investment categories such as private equity and private debt, which have the potential to deliver higher returns than the overall market while spreading risk.

Public equity produced the highest preliminary return with a 24.1% gain, reflecting a strong finish for the stock market. Private equity achieved a preliminary return of 17%.

Private equity returns have risen steadily since a 2022 strategy overhaul by Anton Orlich, who in June was promoted from Managing Investment Director of Private Equity to Deputy Chief Investment Officer for Private Markets. Orlich refocused CalPERS’ private equity strategy on manager selection, lower-cost structures, and diversification toward companies in venture, growth, and middle-market buyout.

This month, CalPERS launched its Total Portfolio Approach, approved by the board in November 2025. It gives the investment team more flexibility to evaluate each investment strategy for its potential to benefit the entire fund, rather than sticking to set allocations for each asset class.

“Our total portfolio approach will mean we will be focusing more on the best investments for the whole portfolio level, rather than just for any individual asset class,” said Chief Investment Officer Stephen Gilmore, who previously oversaw a similar approach at the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. We will regularly and publicly measure the performance of our active approach compared with a standard reference portfolio of 75% global equities and 25% U.S. Treasury bonds, ensuring that we are really delivering value for our members.”

Preliminary total fund annualized returns for the five-year period ending June 30, 2026, stood at 6.83%; the 10-year period at 8.57%; and the 20-year period at 6.81%.

Asset Class (by size)

Net Rate of Return (in percent)

Public Equity

24.1%

Fixed Income

5.9%

Private Equity1

17.0%

Real Assets1

6.3%

Private Debt1

11.0%

1Private market asset valuations lag one quarter and are as of March 31, 2026.

CalPERS investment and finance staff and outside experts will review the portfolio’s performance in the next few months to finalize the fiscal year returns for 2025-26.

The ending value of the PERF for fiscal year 2025-26 will be based on additional factors beyond investment returns, including employer and employee contributions, monthly payments to retirees, and various investment fees.

Once finalized, the fiscal year-end market value of CalPERS’ assets is used to set contribution rates for the State of California and school districts in the 2027-28 fiscal year and for contracting counties, cities, and special districts in the 2028-29 fiscal year.

Under the current provisions of the CalPERS Funding Risk Mitigation Policy, the board is provided the option of lowering the discount rate when investment returns exceed the established 6.8% discount rate. The Board is scheduled to consider the matter in September.

Please review the annual investment report (PDF) for a comprehensive overview of the fund’s assets.

About CalPERS

CalPERS is the largest defined-benefit public pension in the U.S., with 2.4 million members. Since 1932, CalPERS has provided retirement security for state, school, and public agency employees who invest their life’s work in public service. In 1962, CalPERS expanded its services to include health benefits and now offers quality health plan coverage for more than 1.5 million members and their families. 

CalPERS' 2025-26 comprehensive financial report isn't out yet. It will be made available here.

The results for the last fiscal year are impressive, driven by public and private equities, which gained 24% and 17%, respectively. 

I'm going to briefly go over the main points.

First, congratulations to Marcie Frost and her team because they've been getting criticized left, right and center (the politics impacting CalPERs is truly pathetic).

The most important result is the funded status of the Public Employees’ Retirement Fund (PERF), which now stands at 85% and is up significantly from 68% when Marcie Frost arrived at CalPERS in October 2016.

That wasn't all due Marcie Frost and her team's strategy. Strong returns in public and private equities, and especially the increase in rates since the pandemic, have really helped all pension funds get a much better funded status in recent years.

Still, no doubt that CalPERS is on the right track in terms of its funded status and that really is what matters most.

Now, as far as the results, they were impressive but you need to dig deeper to really understand them.

36% of the portfolio is in Public Equities, which gained 24%, and 19% in Private Equities, which gained 17%.

And that 17% return in Private Equity caught my attention as it trounces what Canada's large pension funds have delivered in that asset class.

But the devil is in the details.

J.J. Jelincic is right to note: “These are very good results, however you need to think about how you got there. You expanded high-risk private equity and you moved into higher risk segments within that asset class.”

CalPERS made a deliberate choice to lower its Buyout component to 57% and increase Growth to 32% and Venture to 6% (Note: this massive shift happened in 2022 when former CIO Nicole Musicco was CIO).

In other words, almost 40% of its Private Equity program is now in growth equity and venture cap, which is very aggressive for a pension fund of its size.

Most of the large Canadian pension funds have a lot less in these sectors (on average, 2-3% in venture cap and 10-15% in growth equity max).

That explains why CalPERS generated a 17% return in PE last fiscal year, but when the tide turns, these sectors will get decimated.

As far as Public Equities, I'm impressed with the 24% absolute return and the active portfolio’s excess return against the benchmark, which lifted from a five-year average of 52 basis points in 2022 to 131 basis points in 2026. 

But even there, I'd need to drill down hard to see what risks they are taking, whether they are overweight momentum factors, and how much is in emerging markets and in what sectors?

I used to drill elite hedge funds for a living so I know one thing: high returns do not come without high risk

Again, I'm not criticizing CalPERS performance and I hope they can continue delivering strong returns above their actuarial target, but it seems like there is a lot more risk than meets the eye in their portfolio.

"Well, Leo, Norway's sovereign wealth fund gained 15.1% in 2025, isn't that the same?"  

No, it certainly isn't. NBIM doesn't invest in buyouts, growth equity or venture cap.

It has a clear objective as a sovereign wealth fund and has done scenario analyses to model downside risks.

Again, CalPERS is a pension fund, and while its total portfolio approach sounds nice, in practice, the weighting in that PE portfolio will swamp everything else. 

Anyway, the good news is CalPERS' funded status has drastically improved and I remember they got board approval to use leverage, so they can manage liquidity more tightly when the downturn occurs.

The bad news is there is a lot more embedded risk in that portfolio than I'd be comfortable with if I were sitting on that board. 

Below, CalPERS CEO report from a month ago.You can watch a more cent clip on Instagram here.

Barbara Shecter of the National Post reports Carney investment summit attracts global asset manager backed by Australian super pensions:

A multibillion-dollar global investment manager backed by some of Australia’s largest pension funds will be leading a delegation to the Canada Investment Summit this fall, aiming to pour as much as $10 billion into Canadian infrastructure over the next decade if conditions are right.

IFM Investors Pty Ltd. (IFM), which specializes in infrastructure and manages more than $242 billion on behalf of institutional investors, including AustralianSuper and the Australian Retirement Trust, confirmed a delegation will attend the summit to be hosted by the federal government in Toronto on Sept. 14 and 15.

“IFM is coordinating the participation of the Australian Super Funds to the summit,” Gian-Carlo Peressutti, executive director of public affairs at the global asset manager, said in a statement. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney met directly with some of Australia’s largest pensions when he travelled to the country in March as part of a wider trip to strengthen trade and alliances with middle powers.

At the same time, the Australian institutional investors signed a sweeping cooperation agreement with nine Canadian pensions, including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP), which then partnered with the federal government to host the investment summit. 

Since then, senior IFM executives have said Australian funds are anxious to beef up an “underweight” investment position in Canada, while echoing Canadian pensions in decrying a long-standing lack of opportunities to invest in the kind of large-scale infrastructure assets they seek globally. They have also cited regulatory “frictions” they hope the Carney government and the provinces will address. 

With the first-of-its-kind summit in September, Carney has promised to convene the world’s largest investors, including top CEOs, entrepreneurs and prominent global business leaders, to attract new investment that advances Canada’s nation-building projects in areas such as mining, energy and security while creating jobs and boosting the economy.

His government has pledged to “catalyze” $1 trillion in total investment in Canada over the next five years from public, private and institutional partners. In his first budget last November, his government announced $280-billion worth of capital investments and incentives intended to generate additional investment, including $315 billion in infrastructure alone. 

The budget also announced that airport privatization was under consideration, a tantalizing prospect for pension funds that was bolstered by the government’s spring 2026 pledge to create a $25-billion sovereign wealth fund that will be fuelled in part by “asset recycling,” or selling established cash-generating government-owned assets, such as airports, and using the proceeds to pay for priority infrastructure projects.

During Carney’s visit to Australia in the spring, Kyle Mangini, IFM’s global head of infrastructure, said in a statement that the asset manager was prepared to invest up to $10 billion in Canadian assets over the next 10 years under the “right policy settings.”

He also said in the Financial Review on March 4 that Canadian airports meet the size and scale of assets sought, along with toll roads, should they become available, and infrastructure for critical minerals projects such as rail links and power networks.

IFM has made a couple of investments in Canada in recent years, both in partnership with Canadian institutional investors: Enwave Energy Corp. was acquired in 2021 with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and it also took a 37.5 per cent stake in 2018 in Vancouver-based GCT Global Container Terminals, which operates out of West Coast ports and is jointly owned by Teachers’ and British Columbia Investment Management Corp.

IFM opened its first Canadian office last December in Toronto after Carney’s April election victory on a platform of “build baby build” fast-tracked projects and infrastructure investment.

In the Financial Review article, IFM chair Cath Bowtell said Australian pension funds have struggled to find more opportunities to invest in Canada and are eager to work with Canadian governments at the federal and regional levels to eliminate regulatory frictions. She added that policy reform and faster planning approvals could create more opportunities.

“It’s a jurisdiction that we would like to invest more in,” she said. “As they look to private capital, we really want to be at the front of the queue.”

Carney’s government likely hopes others will think similarly. During his trip to Saudi Arabia this month, the first by a Canadian leader in more than a quarter-century, the prime minister told reporters that the Public Investment Fund, the Middle Eastern kingdom’s US$900-billion sovereign wealth vehicle, is among the large investors that will be attending the investment summit he’s hosting in September.

Slowly but surely, we are getting an idea of who will be attending the Canada Investment Summit in September that Mark Carney's government is putting together.

IFM Investors, one of the world's largest infrastructure investors, led by David Neal and his team, will attend, representing institutional investors, including AustralianSuper and the Australian Retirement Trust.

Representatives from the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia's US$900-billion sovereign wealth fund, will also attend. And I'm certain other big funds will also send a delegation. 

Keep in mind, back in March, Canadian and Australian pensions struck the first-of-its-kind cross-border investment pact, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under the Canadian-Australian Pension Funds Investment Initiative (CAP Invest Initiative). I covered it here.

And in April, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund, calling it the “Canada Strong Fund.” 

Last week, I discussed how the Maple 8 funds are well-suited to finance Canada's nuclear ambitions and why Tim Hodgson, Canada’s natural resources minister, is the key person Carney is turning to get these projects going.

Now, it doesn't take a political aficionado to see that Carney's government has nothing in common with his predecessor, and is taking the needed steps to attract foreign investment into Canada and open up opportunities for domestic pension funds to invest in infrastructure projects at home.

Going into the Canada Investment Summit in mid-September, I foresee more key announcements and even more after the summit.

Carney, who led Brookfield's ESG and Impact Fund Investing prior to becoming PM, knows all the key players all over the world.

People wonder why he travels half the time; it's to meet his counterparts and global investment leaders to sell Canada.  

These are not relaxing trips; they're packed with back-to-back meetings and in many cases, they're high-stakes meetings.

One thing I'd recommend to Mark Carney is to sit down and do more one-on-one interviews to sell his agenda. 

Television commercials are fine but they can't cover much in-depth (a lot of Canadians will tell you they like Carney; he seems "serious," but they don't know much about him).

When you're selling Canada to foreign investors or an agenda to the populace, you need an A1 communications strategy. And that I think needs more work (again, Tim Hodgson is doing most of the heavy lifting there).

Alright, let me end it there.

What a game between Spain and France, so happy to see Spain heading to the World Cup Final.

Below, PM Mark Carney gives an update on the progress his government is delivering (2 weeks ago).

As I said many times, the time for more action, less talk, has come. Hope we see more announcements before the major summit in September.