Statement on the Ontario Teachers’ Federation’s intention to appoint an oil and gas executive to the OTPP Board of Directors

For Immediate Release: September 15, 2022

Statement from Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health on the Ontario Teachers’ Federation’s intention to appoint an oil and gas executive to the OTPP Board of Directors

Toronto, ON | Traditional territories of the Huron-Wendat, the Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chippewas and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation - We are confused by this week’s announcement of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation’s (OTF) intention to appoint an Alberta oil and gas executive to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s (OTPP) Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2023. We strongly urge the OTF to reconsider this decision. 

At a time when the OTPP has made ambitious goals to align its investment strategy with addressing the climate crisis, it is bizarre that newly-chosen Directors appear to lack the required climate expertise needed to implement the OTPP’s net-zero commitment. The appointment of directors with extensive personal and corporate ties to fossil fuel companies raises concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest and Directors’ ability to objectively manage climate-related financial risks and make critical decisions about fossil fuel investments. OTPP Board members are responsible for overseeing a credible, science-based net-zero emissions strategy, potentially creating a scenario where Directors with direct financial interests in oil and gas companies could have to declare a conflict of interest and recuse themselves from decisions on investment strategies that apply to the sector.  

One of the OTF’s intended appointees currently sits on the board of four different fossil fuel companies and was previously the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of AltaGas, a Calgary-based fossil gas extraction, processing, transmission, storage and export company. The second intended appointee to the OTPP Board is a former corporate director of MEG Energy, a major Canadian oil sands producer. If the new appointees join the OTPP board in January as announced, four of the pension fund’s eleven directors– over 36% of the board– will have connections to the fossil fuel industry.

The OTPP Board appointments were made at the behest of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF), the umbrella organization for Ontario teachers’ unions that represents 160,000 working teachers as a sponsor of the OTPP. We are disappointed that these board appointments were made by teachers’ representatives in OTPP governance, given the climate concerns of a growing number of working and retired Ontario teachers. In 2018, ETFO members voted for OTPP fossil fuel divestment, while the president of OECTA called for “divestment at a quicker pace” in 2021.

As a pension fund that’s required to invest in the best long-term interests of Ontario teachers and that claims to be committed to climate action, the OTPP’s Directors should not have a vested interest in the continued growth of the fossil fuel industry. That’s like putting cigarette company executives on the board of public health and expecting us to believe that this has no impact on anti-smoking campaigns.

Background Information

• The OTPP has an eleven-person board. The pension plan’s sponsors, the OTF and the Government of Ontario, each appoint five board members and they jointly select the chair.

• One of the OTF’s intended appointees to the OTPP Board of Directors, Deborah Stein, was formerly the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of AltaGas, a Calgary-based fossil gas extraction, processing, transmission, storage and export company. AltaGas has not made a net-zero emissions commitment. Stein is also currently a corporate director of four different fossil fuel companies and was previously a corporate director of at least one other, including:

  • Parkland Corporation, one of the largest independent fuel and petroleum service companies in Canada, which owns fuel storage and distribution terminals and gas stations across North America and a refinery in British Columbia. Parkland has not made a net-zero emissions commitment;

  • Washington Gas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AltaGas, is a fossil gas utility in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Washington Gas has not made a net-zero emissions commitment;

  • Trican Well Service, a Calgary-based fracking and oilfield services company. Trican has not made a net-zero emissions commitment;

  • NuVista Energy, a Calgary-based oil and gas exploration and production company whose website promotes a pro-oil lobby group that aggressively promotes oil and gas expansion in Canada. NuVista has not made a net-zero emissions commitment;

  • According to her LinkedIn page, Stein was also previously a corporate director of Iron Bridge Resources, a Calgary-based oil and gas exploration and production services company that was acquired by Velvet Energy in November 2017.

• The OTF’s second intended appointee to the OTPP Board, Timothy Hodgson, is a former corporate director of MEG Energy, a major Canadian oil sands producer. Neither the OTF nor the OTPP disclosed Hodgson’s previous directorship with MEG Energy in this week’s Board appointment announcements.

• Stein and Hodgson join two other OTPP Directors with connections to the fossil fuel industry. OTPP Board member Kathleen O’Neill sat on the board of ARC Resources, Canada’s third largest fossil gas producer, for 13 years until retiring in May 2022. OTPP Board member M. George Lewis previously served on the board of both Cenovus Energy, one of Canada’s largest oil and gas producers, and Enbridge Income Fund Holdings, an investment fund with assets consisting of a large portfolio of oil and gas pipeline and storage businesses that was acquired by Enbridge in 2018.

• Shift’s May 2022 analysis also found that, as of March 31, 2022, twelve OTPP investment managers and senior staff currently hold 19 different roles, and previously held six different roles, with 15 different fossil fuel companies. For more details, see Shift’s recent report, Canada’s Climate-Conflicted Pension Managers: The Oil and Gas Insiders Overseeing Canadians’ Retirement Savings.

Contact information for interview requests:

Patrick DeRochie, Senior Manager, Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health
patrick@shiftaction.ca 
416-576-2701

Adam Scott, Director, Shift Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health 
adamscott@shiftaction.ca
416-347-3858

Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health is a charitable initiative that works to protect pensions and the climate by bringing together beneficiaries and their pension funds to engage on the climate crisis.