The recommendations that came out of the OMERS governance review were, by and large, good for union plan members and for OMERS as a whole. The proposed changes would have restored the sponsors at OMERS as a true bargaining board and ensured that plan members retained their voice and vote share in a jointly sponsored plan.
But when the Conservative government buried governance changes to OMERS in its omnibus Bill 68, it cherry-picked which recommendations to implement. Specifically, it chose to re-impose on the members of the new Sponsors Council a fiduciary duty to members and employers – the very thing the review rightly identifies as the problem.
The Conservatives also ignore other important recommendations and suggest further changes would be made by regulation. This could put more of OMERS’ governance under direct government control.
Click to send a message to Rob Flack, the minister responsible for OMERS, and demand that he implement the recommendations of the review to protect the plan and the voices of its members.