Mayor of Cornwall calls for divestment from new fossil fuel development and profitable phase out plans for fossil assets from OMERS

The City of Cornwall has joined the cities of Toronto, London, Brampton and Kingston in passing motions or climate plans calling on OMERS to align its investments with a safe climate. Are you an OMERS member who would like to learn more about how municipal employees are working to protect their pensions and the climate? Get in touch.

In a positive step for pensions and the climate, the mayor of Cornwall, Ontario, sent a letter to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) on July 8, 2024, requesting that the pension fund “set clear goals on climate action and projections, divest from any investment in new fossil fuel development, and either withdraw of [sic] or provide profitable phase out plans for its existing fossil fuel assets.”

The letter was the result of a successful motion introduced at a council meeting on June 11, 2024, by Cornwall city councillor Sarah Good, who first started thinking about how public pensions invest our money at her day job. Serving on Cornwall city council is a part-time position, so Good also works full time at a local community health centre, whose employees pay into the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP). 

Noticing that Good had put forward several climate-related motions at city council, a colleague put her in touch with Shift's Laura McGrath to talk about pensions and climate. After learning about the findings from Shift’s Canadian Pension Climate Report Card, Good immediately thought about the municipal pension fund OMERS. Cornwall city councillors are not OMERS members, but city employees are, and the city pays into the fund on their behalf.

"If there's anywhere I can make some noise, it's at council. So we had a little conversation and then Shift sent me some information and I just rolled with it," says Good. "It took me a little bit to get it together, just because that's life and life gets busy. But basically, the motion [I put forward] was to have the mayor write a letter to OMERS, saying that our council is urging them to divest from fossil fuels."

Volatility of fossil fuel investments

During the debate at the June 11 council meeting, some councillors opposed the motion, but Good was ready to address their concerns. “And so my rebuttal was, there are many other investments that can be made that are lucrative, and that are lucrative in the long term," says Good. "Because we have staff who are working here and receiving OMERS who may be at risk due to the volatility of fossil fuel investments in the long run. Not to mention all of the environmental consequences that come from continuing to support that industry."

"I tried to take it more from an economic standpoint," Good explains. "Around really ensuring that the younger generation’s investments are protected as much as the current generation who are getting ready to cash out on these investments."

Good says she also tried to connect her motion to the work that council and the city had already done before she was elected, such as initiating a climate action plan, hiring a sustainability coordinator, and setting a net zero by 2050 target in its strategic plan. "There's been a clear direction that things are moving in," she explains. "So it didn't come out of left field."

The right side of history

When asked if the wide age range on council was reflected in the final vote, Good, a first-term councillor at age 36, says she got support from the youngest and oldest members of council. The councillor who seconded Good's motion is also 36. And Cornwall mayor Justin Towndale, who cast the tie-breaking vote in favour of the motion, is in his early 40s.

Good says most of the council members who voted against the motion "were in that middle demographic. Close to retirement, but not yet retired. And I think there's a bit of a sense of apathy. You know, they might be old enough to have grandkids, but their grandkids aren’t giving them the business yet [about the urgency of climate action]."

On the other end of the age range, says Good, she also got support from "a handful of older councillors who’ve been retired for a while, who have adult children and even potentially adult grandchildren." She adds that the oldest councillor, aged 81, "has really been supportive."

In her final remarks before the vote, Good told her fellow councillors, "you have an opportunity now to actually push for meaningful change that will help your children and grandchildren and their future. Don’t be the generation that says, ‘Well, no, we’re going to keep it right now because it’s doing really well and we really don’t care what the consequences are going to be down the road."

"I think everybody has this thing in them that they want to be remembered for doing something good," she says now. "Where you want to be on the right side of history."

Are you an OMERS member that wants to push your pension fund to be on the right side of history? We’d love to hear from you.