OMERS: Dwight Duncan’s Dilemma

Imagine the conflict that Dwight is in as Minister of Finance. On the one hand, he desperately needs the pension money that OMERS has socked away to help build infrastructure in Ontario. On the other hand he is the Minister responsible for the Financial Services Commission of Ontario that has been investigating OMERS for over a year now with no report yet in sight.

The Globe and Mail has just reported that the five new directors quit the OMERS Private Capital board, a group that was to receive about $3.6 billion of OMERS pension money for investment.

While that is scary enough, the comments from one of the people who left ought to turn Dwight’s hair white, and make Sid Ryan of CUPE apoplectic. Paul Morton, said he left "out of a sense of frustration with the incompetence of the OMERS board…Private equity is a promising asset class, but it's not a panacea. If you're not very good at it, you can get your head taken off." Morton is no slouch either being co-founder of what is now CanWest Global Communications Corp., and a former director of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. and Onex, Canada's pioneer private equity company.

It is time for the Minister to act decisively. Too much is at stake.

There are better ways to fund CUPE member retirements that meet the CUPE members retirement goals and taxpayer pocket-books. The OMERS Act Governance changes must be stopped immediately until someone figures out what is going on over there. Our Council is already complaining about the increased amounts we in Windsor must pay to OMERS. We will hear the same story from every Municipality in Ontario shortly.

Mister Minister, it is time for a full-scale Judicial Inquiry into the affairs of OMERS