Canada’s Largest Pension Funds Stick To Lucrative Oil Sands Bets

Canada’s Largest Pension Funds Stick To Lucrative Oil Sands Bets

Canada's oil sands industry is too carbon-intensive for the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets of some of the world's largest institutional investors. But not for Canada's own pension funds. 

The five largest Canadian pension funds, which manage US$1.2 trillion in total assets, saw their combined investment in the U.S.-listed shares of the major oil sands producer surge by 147 percent in the first quarter of 2021, to a total of US$2.4 billion, according to a Reuters analysis of filings to the SEC.  

Most of the jump in the value of investments of the pension funds merely reflected the rise in share prices of stock already held. Yet, the funds also bought more shares in the largest Canadian oil sands producers, according to the Reuters analysis.