Pension Report, ARM Chapter 12 Executive Meeting
November 11, 2020
Paul Heddon
All OTPP pensioners will receive a 1% pension increase effective January 1, 2021.
Our pension plan has made two additional investments in October and November. The first investment for $267 million was in Pony an autonomous driving company. It builds the technology that allows vehicles to drive safely on public roads. OTPP partnered with a Chinese firm and several other Venture Capital Companies in this transaction.
Our plan also combined with a New York State Equity firm called Lightyear that focuses on financial services. They purchased Alworth Financial, an American Company that specializes in retirement and estate planning, as well as tax preparation. It is one of the fastest growing Registered Investment Advisers in the USA.
Cadillac Fairview, a subsidiary of our pension plan, owns twelve large malls across Canada, including Fairview, the Eaton Centre, Sherway Gardens and Markville Mall. Facial recognition technology was used at these malls to analyze visitor’s images without their consent ( over 5 million images). The information was used to determine the ages and genders of the individuals. A third-party company was found to be storing this information. This contravenes our Privacy Act. Unfortunately, the Federal Privacy Commission currently does not have the power to impose fines in this situation. Bad publicity was received regarding the implementation and usage of the facial recognition technology.