Message to UCP: “This is not your government’s money.”

EDMONTON – The leaders of nine of Alberta’s largest unions, representing hundreds of thousands of Albertans workers, have sent Premier Danielle Smith a letter demanding seats on the AIMCo board.

“This is not your government’s money,” reads the letter to Smith. “It is the retirement savings of nearly 500,000 working and retired Albertans. These are our members. And on their behalf, we demand more of a say in how their money is managed.”

AIMCo is responsible for managing $169 billion in investments. About $25 billion of that figure is money that has been saved in the Heritage Fund. The rest – more than $140 billion – is money that is being managed for public sector pension plans, including the three biggest plans: the Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP); the Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP); and the Alberta Teacher Retirement Fund (ATRF).

The union presidents say the fact that workers and pension plans have no representation on the AIMCo board amounts to a form of “taxation without representation.”

In addition to seats on the board, the unions are demanding a return to “optionality,” or the ability of pension plans to leave AIMCo — which is a right that was taken away from the plans by the UCP’s controversial Bill 22.

“Our pension plans should have the right to choose who manages their investments,” the union letter says. “They should have the right to leave AIMCo and find other investment managers if they are not satisfied with AIMCo’s performance or the direction being set by its board or its management team. It’s time to stop holding Alberta workers and retirees hostage.”

If the Smith government announces a new board without worker or pension plan representation, and without optionality, the union leaders say they will “have no choice but to begin organizing workers and retirees to defend their retirement savings.”

The union letter is signed by Gil McGowan, of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), Guy Smith of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), Heather Smith of the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), Jason Schilling of Alberta Teachers Association (ATA), Rory Gill of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Alberta Division, Mike Parker of the Health Science Association of Alberta (HSAA), Quinn Benders of the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA) for the University of Alberta, Lee Easton of the Council of Alberta Faculty Associations (CAFA), and Shauna MacDonald of the Alberta Colleges and Institutes Faculties Association (ACIFA).

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Background: Letter linked here.

MEDIA CONTACT:
John Ashton
Director of Communications, AFL
Email: jashton@afl.org