Media Release
Release Date: June 6, 2023
What does it take for Canada’s largest pension plan to smarten up?
That’s what a group of seniors is asking, as they flood Canada’s largest pension fund with postcards demanding it divests from fossil fuels.
Seniors for Climate Action Now! (SCAN!) is a growing group of seniors in Ontario who are coming together for a common cause: to mobilize urgent action on the climate emergency.
“Look at the intense fires burning now across Canada, the worst on record this spring. Look at the heat dome that destroyed the town of Lytton in British Columbia, and at the derecho that rampaged through Ontario and Quebec last spring. Most seniors in Canada belong to the Canada Pension Plan. We don’t want the CPP Investment Board (CPPIB) using our money to fund the climate emergency,” said SCAN! member, Jan McQuay.
The production, refining and distribution of oil and gas alone produces 28% of Canada’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of decreasing, these emissions are growing. CPPIB is a major investor in the fossil fuel industry, both in Canada and internationally.
McQuay and other SCAN! members feel that it is past time to call out the refusal of their pension plan to shift away from fossil fuels. CPPIB has more than $20 billion invested in oil, gas and coal. The Board refuses to divest. Although it says it is committed to net zero by 2050, it refuses to set interim targets and has no plan on how to achieve it.
The SCAN! members have developed and printed more than 1000 postcards and are distributing them to their membership, encouraging them and their families and friends to write a message and send them to John Graham, CPPIB’s president and CEO, Heather Munro-Blum, the Chair of the Board of Directors, and to Richard Manley, Chief Sustainability Officer.
“We have tried sending polite letters to them expressing our concern and offering positive solutions, but to no avail,” said Moya Beall. “We know that seniors are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. But we are also concerned about what the world will be like for our children and the next generations. So, with our postcards, even more seniors can have a chance to speak their minds to the CPPIB.”
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Email: scandivestment@gmail.com