Pension funds are among the most influential actors in the global financial industry. They manage more money than all the sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and private equity funds of the world combined, and Canada is home to some of the biggest pension funds on the planet.
The decisions that pension fund managers make on how to invest working people’s savings have enormous consequences. They can inflate real estate bubbles and commodity prices, make controversial megaprojects possible or, in much rarer cases, change corporate behaviour by threatening divestment.