Petition to divest the Canada Pension Plan from fossil fuels

I am sponsoring parliamentary petition e-2615, which calls on the government to change how the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) manages $400 billion of Canadians’ pension savings.

This petition recognizes that the government is facing growing pressure to bail out the fossil fuel industry amidst the global pandemic. It urges the government to divest the CPP from fossil fuels and make no future CPP investments in the industry. It also calls on the government to analyze and publicly report on the risk level of assets in the CPP portfolio, and discontinue certain investment practices.

I recently also sponsored a petition calling on the government to end all fossil fuel subsidies.

Fossil fuel investments are no longer smart or safe. Oil prices were declining before the pandemic. Many large investment firms are divesting from fossil fuels, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which is the largest state-owned investment fund in the world. The Norwegian government removed $13 billion from fossil fuels and instead invested $20 billion into renewable energy, to reduce risk and yield the best return on investment for Norway.

We need to move our investments into renewable energy and technology. Fossil fuels are the technology of the past.

Petition e-2615 can be signed here.

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Whereas:

• The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) manages $400 billion of Canadians pension savings;

• Following the financial challenges of 2008-09 and when governments rescued commercial banks from bankruptcy by “bailout,” using the credit worthiness of each country, central bankers have been searching for an alternative to taxpayer “bailout”; and

• Current global conditions suggest there will be a growing desire to “bailout” the fossil fuel industry, dependent economies and lenders to that industry.

We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to direct the CPPIB to:

1. Divest of all fossil fuel investments and to no longer entertain any new fossil fuel investment opportunity;

2. Hire a qualified, independent consultant to examine the total Canada Pension Plan Fund portfolio of investments for the purpose of completing a “value at risk” analysis in 2020 and every four year thereafter, which will also be publicly reported;

3. Refrain from making private equity investments and to progressively divest the Fund of these investments;

4. Discontinue the use of borrowed money.

SIGN THE PETITION