Calgary/CMEDIA: Former prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper has reportedly been appointed the new chairman of the board of AIMCo, the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, which oversees more than $160 billion in funds, including pension funds and the Heritage Savings Trust Fund.
The move comes almost two weeks after the province’s finance minister fired the Crown agency’s entire board, along with a number of executives, citing escalating costs and no corresponding substandard returns.
AIMCo CEO Evan Siddall and three other top executives were also let go.
“We’re incredibly fortunate that Mr. Harper has agreed to take on this leadership role with AIMCo…Our ambitious goal of building the Heritage Savings Trust Fund to more than $250 billion in the next 25 years requires strong governance oversight, which he will provide,” Alberta premier Danielle Smith has said in a news release.
Danielle Smith also said Wed in a statement that the appointment of Harper and other board members is a step toward the long-term success of AIMCo and added,
“Our ambitious goal of building the Heritage Savings Trust Fund to more than $250 billion in the next 25 years requires strong governance oversight, which he will provide,” she said.
Harper will lead “a newly reconstituted board of directors” that will oversee “AIMCo’s effort to restore confidence and stability in Alberta’s investment management agency, the province said Wed.
Harper said he will not be paid for his work.
“I am taking on this role..I believe it is a meaningful act of public service to my adopted home province of the last 46 year..feel uniquely positioned to help the organization improve its governance…thanks to professional operations, upstanding ethics and prudent risk management…have accepted the role of board chair because I want to see AIMCo further embody these values and to positively contribute to this culture…look forward to working with the new board of directors and AIMCo’s new management team,” Harper has said in the news release.
I am taking on the role of Board Chair of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), and doing so on a pro-bono basis, because I believe it is a meaningful act of public service to my adopted home province of the last 46 years. I also feel uniquely positioned to help…— Stephen Harper (@stephenharper) November 20, 2024
Applauding Harper’s experience as a G7 leader and “a steward of tax dollars,”Finance Minister Nate Horner said it makes him ideal for the role.
Harper was Conservative prime minister from 2006 to 2015.
Several previous AIMCo board members, said the province, have been reappointed to the new board, including Navjeet (Bob) Singh Dhillon, Jason Montemurro and James Keohane.
The deputy minister of treasury board and finance will now be a permanent board member of AIMCo and will not be compensated for the role, the province said.
Finance Minister Nate Horner’s appointment as interim board chair earlier this month has been cancelled.
But AIMCo is being launched as a potential manager.
The shakeup at AIMCo follows a public push by Smith’s United Conservative Party to pull the province out of the Canada Pension Plan(CPP) but the province has not yet decided on leaving the CPP.
According to an estimate of report commissioned by the provincial government, Alberta would be entitled to $334 billion, more than half of the CPP fund’s assets.
In addition to Harper, the government said it’s putting the deputy finance minister on the board permanently, also without pay, in order to “to ensure more consistent communications between AIMCo and Alberta’s government.”
AIMCo’s mandate implies that in spite of cooperation and collaboration between it and the government, it is meant to operate independently and at arm’s-length from the government.
Three of the fired board members — Bob Dhillon, Jason Montemurro, and James Keohane — were also reappointed.
In its latest annual report, AIMCo said it had $161 billion of assets under management as of the end of last year, with 600 employees spread across offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Luxembourg and London, U.K.
It handles about $118 billion in investments for public sector pension plans representing thousands of Albertans, including teachers, police officers and municipal workers.
