The Social Investment Organization is continuing to press for new federal rules to increase the transparency of national pension funds on social and environmental issues and shareholder voting.

The SIO launched its Right to Know campaign in August in response to a federal consultation on defined-benefit pension plans under the federal Pension Benefits Standards Act (PBSA).

SIO asked its members to write letters of support for the initiative, and many of its members responded with letters of support.

The consultation officially concluded on Sept. 15, but SIO Executive Director Eugene Ellmen said the SIO will continue to press the federal government for transparency reforms.

In its brief, the SIO calls for regulations that would require pension plans to disclose their social and environmental policies, as well as their proxy voting policies and voting records. The social and environmental disclosure rules are similar to recent legislation in the UK, France and Germany. The proxy voting rules are similar to rules now in effect for mutual funds in Canada and the United States.

A number of SIO members supported this position.

“I believe that fiduciaries must incorporate social, ethical, and environmental analysis into their portfolio assessments to reduce risk on the investments, and promote are more sustainable future for the world we all live in,” said Gary Hawton, CEO of Meritas Financial Inc. “Pension plans around the world have been much more visionary with these types of issues, yet the PBSA has failed to even look at these issues with this consultation.”

“Pension plan members have a right to know if and how their plans consider social and environmental performance in the management of their pension money,” states a brief signed by Michael Jantzi, Rob Gross and Kevin Ranney of Jantzi Research Inc. “Similarly, plan members have a right to know the proxy voting policies and voting records of their plans. Currently there is a lack of transparency in both of these areas, and the review of the PBSA provides an opportunity to address this problem.”

The consultation document and record of comments is available at http://www.fin.gc.ca/news05/05-037e.html.

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