Canadian pension funds – the evolving Canadian model

Summary provided by officers
IBA Corporate and M&A Law Committee

A session at the IBA Annual Conference Toronto 2025, on 6 November 2025

Session Co-Chairs
Isabella Ramsay, Mannheimer Swartling, Stockholm
Stephen Solursh, OPTrust, Toronto

Panelists
Mary Abbott, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), Toronto
Michael Kelly, OMERS, Toronto
Ilkka Perheentupa, Avance Attorneys, Helsinki
Patrice Walch-Watson, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto
John Walsh, Alberta Investment Management Corporation, Edmonton

Session summary

One of our panel sessions on Thursday afternoon was on the subject of ‘Canadian pension funds – the evolving Canadian model’ and featured an impressive line-up of participants from four of the ‘Maple 8’ pension funds: Mary Abbott from HOOPP, Michael Kelly from OMERS, Patrice Walch-Watson from CPPIB Investments and John Walsh from AIMCo, as well as an external M&A practitioner from Europe, Ilkka Perheentupa from Avance Attorneys (Helsinki), who provided the adviser’s perspective on working with Canadian pension funds and comparing that experience with that of representing European-based sovereign wealth, pension and private equity funds. The panel explored the current state of the Canadian model from their respective perspectives, the challenges that they are facing in terms of increased domestic political influence, the everchanging landscape of global investing and how their respective strong governance models are equipped to handle such challenges. The panelists spent some time discussing the effects of the policies being adopted by the current US administration on environmental, social and governance (ESG) and investments in the green transition and, finally, the panel provided the audience with a few good tips on how to serve pension funds most effectively as external legal counsel. The session was moderated by Isabella Ramsay from Mannheimer Swartling (Stockholm) and Stephen Solursh from OPTrust (Canada). 

Key takeaways

• the Canadian model remains strong and well-equipped to weather the internal and external storms facing the ‘Maple 8’, in large part thanks to their strong internal governance and long-term investment horizon;
• while acknowledging the pressure to ‘unlock’ Canadian pension funds in regard to the potential for increased investments in domestic assets, the panel was adamant that such opportunities still need to tick all the boxes in terms of expected returns to the funds’ primary constituents, their members;
• geopolitics, trade tensions, changes in the regulatory landscape post-investment, increasingly complex foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals and similar uncertainties are rendering global investment activities less predictable than in the past, leading to an increased focus on managing such risks as part of the legal and investment strategy;
• investments in the green transition are continuing despite short-term challenges, based on the certainty that these will be successful investments in the long term and, more generally, while as fiduciaries, pension plans must invest for ‘value’ and not ‘values’, ESG factors relevant to investment performance must be considered when making investment decisions; and
• the participants on the panel are seeking partnerships with their external advisers and cautioned that advisers should not assume that all pension plans are the same, as each has their own liability equation, funded status, risk tolerance and way of doing things.