Canada

CANADA - The Canadian government is looking at ways to ease pension funding obligations, following calls from the industry to protect Canadians from the consequences of the recent meltdown of global financial markets.

CANADA - British Columbia (BC) is to create a 'first of its kind' mutual pension savings scheme for the 75% of workers in the province without access to a retirement plan.

CANADA - Public and private pension funds consider generating returns in the current environment to be the biggest problem facing retirement plans at the moment, a study by Fidelity Investments' institutional asset management arm has found.

CANADA - Q3 saw Canadian pension plans suffer their largest quarterly decline in a decade, RBC Dexia Investor Services has revealed.

CANADA/UK - The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) has established an office in London, in a quest to accelerate its expansion into private market investments and to pursue a global presence.

CANADA - The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) has acquired US-based Acquilex Holdings, a maintenance, cleaning and repair company for the oil refining, fossil power, nuclear, petrochemical and waste-to-energy industries, for an undisclosed sum.

CANADA - The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) has introduced a change to its cost-of-living allowance, in order to eliminate a C$12.7bn (US$11.9bn) shortfall reported earlier this year.

CANADA - The $108.5bn Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) has increased its total holding in the equity of Hammerson plc to 8,950,000 ordinary shares, representing approximately 3.1% of the issued ordinary share capital of the company.

CANADA - Company pension plans are still in deficit, as sponsors continue to take investment and interest rate risk with portfolios, according to Mercer.

CANADA - The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (Committee) of CFM US Corporation has filed a complaint against the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board (OTTPB).