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National Observer
10-06-2025
- Business
- National Observer
Toronto financial institutions must do more to advance the energy transition
There is no doubt Canadians are absorbed by the many challenges related to the trade war, the attack on sovereignty and bringing the Stanley Cup back home. While each of these issues demand our attention, Canadians concerned about the American desires for territorial aggrandizement should not place climate-change action on the back burner. Despite our neighbours from the south abandoning the fight against climate change and proceeding to amplify the wicked problem, it is perhaps the most opportune time for Canadians to ensure our financial institutions are aligned to meet net-zero targets as soon as possible. Toronto and Montreal have historically shared the financial centre of Canada via two distinct approaches. While Toronto takes a more traditional path of hosting the headquarters of many of the country's banks, insurers and pension funds, Montreal is the leader in making Canada's financial system more environmentally and socially sustainable. A 2023 report from the University of Toronto found that in 2022, Bay Street-based financial institutions were responsible for financing 1.44 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. As the study explains, if Bay Street were a country, it would be equivalent to the fifth-largest polluter in the world, behind only China, the US, Russia and Japan. This report was inspired by a 2019 report by Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, which showed that London comparatively financed just over half of those financed by Toronto institutions, despite London having a larger financial sector in terms of dollars at the time. Despite this, until very recently, the City of Toronto has not made significant strides to address the climate pollution of its financial sector. By contrast, Montreal has been a clear frontrunner on shifting the financial sector toward sustainability and reducing climate pollution. Last month, Montreal displayed its leadership on sustainable finance at its annual Sustainable Finance Summit (Sommet de la finance durable). This event drew experts from across Canada to discuss ambitious leadership initiatives and investments toward a more sustainable financial system. One such initiative is Quebec's Sustainable Finance Roadmap, which aims to modernize the province's financial sector for social considerations and climate action. Furthermore, Quebec-based Desjardins and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) are two of the most forward-looking financial institutions on climate change to be found globally: Desjardins leads Canada in its ratio of sustainable energy financing to fossil fuels, while CDPQ has nearly completed an exit from coal and oil investments. Other cities globally are taking their competitive edge even further. London ranks first in the Global Green Finance Index (GGFI), while other cities have made significant strides forward. Notably, Singapore's 2019 green finance action plan helped it climb from number 23 to second in the Global Green Finance Index in just five years. Auckland has seen notable success in issuing its own green bonds to finance green public infrastructure, and in 2021, three of New York City's pension funds fully divested from fossil fuels, collectively divesting $4 billion in public securities. Canada just ensure our financial institutions are aligned to meet net-zero targets as soon as possible, write Stephen Kibsey and Robert Soden Toronto can fix its climate pollution problem. In late March 2025, the Toronto city council made a decisive step toward advancing as a leader in sustainable finance by adopting a new motion ( on the matter. This would establish a sustainable finance hub in Toronto, require the city to commission a report on best practices from peer cities in partnering with the financial sector on climate mitigation, and require the city to encourage federal and provincial regulators to set ambitious climate-aligned financial regulations. Overall, Canada is well-positioned to attract green investment and emerge as a leading North American destination for climate-aligned capital and financial innovation. A strong, predictable and rules-based environment is vital to attracting global investment in the energy transition. Looking forward, Toronto should advance the recommendations from the sustainable finance motion and help advance policy that would enable the financial sector to decarbonize its financial portfolios. Montreal should continue to provide an example and collaborate with Toronto to achieve successful climate-aligned finance. Canada must use the momentum it provides to build a stable regulatory environment and work to become North America's sustainable finance leader. With lifelong sustainable finance expert Mark Carney now serving as Canada's prime minister, we have both the expertise and the political opportunity to lead on stronger rules for climate-aligned finance. The cities of Toronto and Montreal can, and should, play an important role in encouraging Carney to show credibility on climate-related financial rules, which is the issue he built his career on before joining Canadian politics. As other countries are reversing action on climate change, the time to continue building an economic edge in financing the energy transition is now.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
FIRST READING: What Carney's inner circle really thinks about oil and gas
First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post's own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here. After 10 years of the extremely anti-fossil fuel Trudeau government, the Canadian energy sector is suddenly optimistic that their future need not be one of managed decline. The government of Prime Minister Mark Carney keeps referring to Canada as an 'energy superpower' and is even raising the once-taboo subject of building new pipelines. As former Conservative resources minister Joe Oliver put it in a recent column for the Financial Post, the Liberals have been 'mugged by reality.' But Carney's inner circle contains more than a few figures who have been quite vocal about their distaste for oil and gas development, sometimes as little as a few months ago. Below, a quick summary of what Carney's team was saying before all the 'energy superpower' talk got started. Marc-Andre Blanchard Incoming chief of staff When Blanchard's appointment was announced this week, critics quickly seized on a 2023 interview in which he endorsed the end of any new Canadian fossil fuel development. Conservative MP Larry Brock, for one, told the House of Commons that the 'new chief of staff is hell-bent on shutting down oil and gas.' The interview was published by Net Zero Investor, and details Blanchard's efforts to decarbonize the portfolio of the Quebec pension fund CDPQ, where he was head of global sustainability. 'CDPQ's conviction is: It is essential not to contribute to increased oil and coal production and to focus on renewable and transition energies,' Blanchard said at the time, framing the move as one that was ultimately profitable for the fund. 'Over five years in equity markets, we made almost $1 billion more than if we had an oil exposure,' he said. The article also noted that CDPQ had held onto its natural gas holdings, with the reasoning that 'although the supply of renewable energy is growing, it is unable to meet all the current demand for energy.' Mark Carney Prime minister It was only a few months that Carney was still chair of Brookfield Asset Management, a firm with massive oil and gas holdings (in addition to its much-touted green energy portfolio). In 2021, for instance, a Brookfield subsidiary finalized the acquisition of Inter Pipeline Ltd., Canada's fourth largest pipeline company. But, as is well-known, Carney was also one of the world's most visible proponents of the concept of 'net zero,' a view he espoused as the United Nation's Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance. Carney's 2021 book Values gets into detail of his vision for the Canadian energy sector. He wrote that 'there will continue to be a place' for Canadian fossil fuels, but within a framework where 'the carbon footprint of our energy sources' goes down. Four years later, this somewhat contradictory view is much the same. In the space of just 30 seconds this week, Carney told a press conference that his government saw an 'oil pipeline … to tidewater' as an 'opportunity' — before adding that 'decarbonized barrels' of oil should be the priority. Tim Hodgson Minister of natural resources If Blanchard is being accused of being a 'keep it in the ground' zealot, Hodgson is the Carney government's leading counterweight. A May 23 speech Hodgson delivered to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce spoke of 'cutting red tape,' and contained no mention of the terms 'net zero' or 'decarbonization.' And the only time he mentioned 'climate change' was in a section where he suggested Canadian energy should be employed to 'displace' dirtier fuels overseas. 'By working with the energy sector to make investments that fight climate change, we can get more barrels to market while cutting carbon emissions,' he said. Still, Hodgson's first statements to the House of Commons show him hedging his bets on the central issue of new export pipelines. 'We will support new pipelines if there is a national consensus in favour of them,' he said on May 29. Julie Dabrusin Minister of environment and climate change Carney's new environment minister, Dabrusin, has been the MP for Toronto—Danforth since 2015, and replaces Steven Guilbeault, whose tenure was marked by open hostility to the energy sector. As Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said upon Guilbeault leaving the post, he had put 'an activist agenda ahead of the well being and economic health of Albertans and Canadians.' Nevertheless, Dabrusin is on record espousing many of Guilbeault's most controversial positions. This includes the 2024 boast that 'no other country' was placing an emissions cap on its petroleum sector — a statement that was quickly taken up by the Opposition as evidence that Canada was kneecapping its own energy production even as it continued unabated everywhere else. 'No other country has capped emissions from oil and gas production,' Dabrusin told the House of Commons in April, 2024. She's called carbon pricing the 'largest single tool we have to reduce emissions,' and in 2022 she said the future of the Canadian oil sector would be to lubricate windmills. 'Even in a net-zero world, we will always need oil for some things, and not just bike chain grease. We also need it to make lubricant for windmills. If members want to keep seeing latex gloves in our hospitals, we will always need oil,' she said. If parliamentary procedure is your thing, Monday was witness to an absolutely elite-tier operation by the Conservatives. After the Carney government swore repeatedly that they were too busy to prepare a budget until at least the fall, the House of Commons slipped through an amendment for them to do it anyway. On a routine House of Commons vote to accept the speech from the throne, the Conservatives threw in an amendment calling on the government 'to present to Parliament an economic update or budget this spring, before the House adjourns for the summer.' The NDP and the Bloc Québécois all voted yes on the amendment, causing it to pass 166 to the Liberals' 164 votes. The Liberals don't have to table a spring budget, but if they don't they'll technically be violating the terms of their own throne speech all of these insights and more into your inbox by signing up for the First Reading newsletter. Carney denounces 'unlawful and unjustified' doubling of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum Liberals downplay narrowly lost vote demanding spring budget
Cision Canada
05-06-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
CDPQ and Temasek cash in on FNZ's uncommercial capital raises, leaving employee shareholders out in the cold
LONDON, June 5, 2025 /CNW/ -- Warrants issued as part of three successive FIAT transactions by global wealth management platform FNZ – raising approximately US$1.5 billion in new capital – have now been exercised by two of the institutional investors. As part of the uncommercial terms of these equity raises, FNZ's board and management issued US$1.2 billion worth of Redeemable Preference Shares alongside a bundle of 27,625 Warrants. Now, CDPQ and Temasek have exercised their Warrants, crystalising the significant dilution for employee shareholders. These Warrants enabled FNZ's institutional and private equity investors, who control the board and management, to acquire FNZ Class A shares at US$0.25 per share. This is a staggering discount compared to a potential market price of US$130,000 per share. Based on FNZ's most recent publicly available enterprise valuation of US$20 billion, the fair market cost of these shares should have been US$3.6 billion, not US$7,000. Now that CDPQ and Temasek have exercised their Warrants, they have secured 19,361 new Class A shares, representing over 70% of the total Warrants issued. Employee shareholders point to this deal as a glaring example of "non-arm's-length transactions", favouring the institutional shareholders represented by the board at the expense of employee shareholders. "This is daylight robbery and it is clear that the likes of CPP, Generation and Motive will now follow suit," said one senior FNZ employee shareholder, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Our institutional and PE investors each handed themselves a package worth billions, and in doing so have obliterated the value of the shares held by employee and former employee shareholders, who built the company." FNZ's management and board have significantly diluted employee shareholders. In addition to the Warrants, the Redeemable Preference Shares were structured with extremely high return hurdles, providing a two or three times Multiple of Invested Capital (MOIC) for redemption. The FNZ board has failed to engage with employee shareholders regarding their concerns. FNZ employee shareholders are now bringing their case to the High Court of New Zealand in what will be one of Asia Pacific's largest class actions of its kind.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CDPQ and Temasek cash in on FNZ's uncommercial capital raises, leaving employee shareholders out in the cold
LONDON, June 5, 2025 /CNW/ -- Warrants issued as part of three successive FIAT transactions by global wealth management platform FNZ – raising approximately US$1.5 billion in new capital – have now been exercised by two of the institutional investors. As part of the uncommercial terms of these equity raises, FNZ's board and management issued US$1.2 billion worth of Redeemable Preference Shares alongside a bundle of 27,625 Warrants. Now, CDPQ and Temasek have exercised their Warrants, crystalising the significant dilution for employee shareholders. These Warrants enabled FNZ's institutional and private equity investors, who control the board and management, to acquire FNZ Class A shares at US$0.25 per share. This is a staggering discount compared to a potential market price of US$130,000 per share. Based on FNZ's most recent publicly available enterprise valuation of US$20 billion, the fair market cost of these shares should have been US$3.6 billion, not US$7,000. Now that CDPQ and Temasek have exercised their Warrants, they have secured 19,361 new Class A shares, representing over 70% of the total Warrants issued. Employee shareholders point to this deal as a glaring example of "non-arm's-length transactions", favouring the institutional shareholders represented by the board at the expense of employee shareholders. "This is daylight robbery and it is clear that the likes of CPP, Generation and Motive will now follow suit," said one senior FNZ employee shareholder, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Our institutional and PE investors each handed themselves a package worth billions, and in doing so have obliterated the value of the shares held by employee and former employee shareholders, who built the company." FNZ's management and board have significantly diluted employee shareholders. In addition to the Warrants, the Redeemable Preference Shares were structured with extremely high return hurdles, providing a two or three times Multiple of Invested Capital (MOIC) for redemption. The FNZ board has failed to engage with employee shareholders regarding their concerns. FNZ employee shareholders are now bringing their case to the High Court of New Zealand in what will be one of Asia Pacific's largest class actions of its kind. View original content: SOURCE FNZ Employee Shareholders View original content:
Bloomberg
01-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Carney Picks Canadian Pension Executive as Next Chief of Staff
Prime Minister Mark Carney is hiring an executive from one of Canada's top pension fund managers to be his chief of staff. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec said in a release Sunday that Marc-André Blanchard, executive vice-president and head of CDPQ Global and and global head of sustainability, was leaving to become Carney's chief of staff.
