Mr. Speaker, I rise virtually tonight at Adjournment Proceedings to pursue a question I asked on October 31. The response came from the hon. Minister of Transportation, who is also the government leader in the House. It was inadequate, and that is why I pursue this very urgent matter tonight.
We are supposed to have a government policy of putting Canada first. The question I put that day in question period pertained to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and its actions, and I asked why we did not put Canada first. The hon. minister answered by saying that the CPPIB, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is “ethical” in tracking and “above-board” in making “investments all over the world, including in Canada.” He went on to say that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board “take[s] investing in Canada very, very seriously.”
Well, the CPPIB does not invest much in Canada, and I think my colleagues in the House need to know this about the $92 billion of our pension money, and so do all Canadians who have investments in the Canada pension plan and who count on it for our retirement. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board currently has 12% of that $92 billion invested in Canada and 47% invested in the U.S. and elsewhere all around the world.
In the 25-year history of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, its fundamental legislation has never been revisited, in contrast to the Quebec pension plan investment board. In Quebec, pension dollars are also invested by an arms-length board, but by legislation in Quebec, pension dollars have to be invested with some concern for improving the well-being of Quebeckers, in the interest of Quebec.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act does not require the board to be concerned about Canada at all. The investment board, made up of people who reside mostly outside Canada, is making decisions about investments from New York. It is concerned about getting the best return on investment. That means that it is, for example, a major investor in fossil fuel companies all around the world, in fracking in Ohio and gas fields in Texas, for example, with $22 billion of our pension plan money invested in fossil fuel investments. That is just the tip of the iceberg.
In the time that I have, I cannot really shine the light on all the scandals associated with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, but I do want to reference where I have found a lot of these specific examples: research by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, and a second report by a group called Shift, which focuses on pension wealth and planet health.
Let us look at a recent example, a huge scandal in which mismanagement by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, virtually unreported in Canada, lost Canadians $500 million of our investment while the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board had two seats on the board of Paris-based Orpea, Europe's largest long-term care facility. Look it up. It was engaged in criminal activity and embezzlement. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board had two seats on its board of directors; as well, it had 23% of the shares—