With Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne vowing to implement major reforms to political fundraising in Ontario, what has the pension and benefits industry been up to when it comes to donations to political parties?
According to the Elections Ontario database of political donations, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) and the Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan Association have made contributions in recent years.
Listed as OMERS Administration Corp., OMERS Strategic Investments and OMERS Ventures Management Inc. in the database, the pension fund donated to all three major provincial political parties in 2011 and 2012, the New Democratic Party and Progressive Conservative Party in 2013 and to just the Ontario Liberal Party in 2015.
In 2015, OMERS Strategic Investments gave $5,000 to the Liberals. In 2013, OMERS Administrative Corp. gave $9,060 to the NDP and $1,825 to the Conservatives. OMERS Ventures Management gave $5,000 to the Liberals that same year.
Read: OMERS return drops to 6.7% in 2015
The database also shows the Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan Association donated $6,440 to the Progressive Conservative Party in 2011.
Such organizations will likely no longer be able to continue making such donations as Wynne vows to reform the rules amid questions raised in Toronto Star articles about fundraising targets imposed by the Liberal party on cabinet ministers. The articles have also prompted questions about rules that, while imposing a cap of $9,975 on donations to a central party in a given year, also allow donors to contribute the same amount during a byelection campaign. In addition, critics have taken the province to task for failing to follow the federal government in banning corporate and union donations several years ago.
While all parties have maintained they follow the rules, is there a conflict of interest when entities like OMERS, an organization whose pension plans are subject to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System Act, donate to provincial political campaigns? The issue is largely one of optics, says Nelson Wiseman, a professor in the University of Toronto’s department of political science.
“OMERS and the teachers are huge, huge corporations, and in the totality of the money they’ve spent and the size of their organizations, whatever they’ve given is loose change,” he says.
“But, what counts, is the optics of it. There is a legitimate question whether outfits that get money from the government should be giving money back to the governing party.”
Read: How will the 2016 budget affect employers?
Despite provincial legislation that applies to OMERS, the organization is independent of the Ontario government, according to spokesman Neil Hrab. “OMERS is invested in many businesses in Ontario that, in turn, support approximately 17,000 jobs in our province, making us a significant player in the Ontario economy,” he said.
“Provincial legislation outlines the rules around financial contributions to political parties in support of Ontario’s democratic process. We follow the rules. If those rules change, we’ll follow the new rules.”
Vic Medland, chief executive officer of the Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan, says the 2011 donation isn’t the norm for the organization. “The contribution was made by a former CEO of OTIP and was indeed a one-time event. I’m not sure what was driving the climate at that time. No contributions have been made since that one in 2011.”
Read: 4 ways to improve Canadian health care
Wiseman says the decision for a corporation to make a political donation depends on a number of factors, such as who’s on its board or committee, who they meet throughout the year and whether there’s a piece of relevant legislation on the agenda. “These contributions may not have even been solicited, but they feel they should let them know they exist, our names should show up on their donor lists,” he says.
While Wynne is vowing to move quickly on reform, Pauline Beange, who teaches Canadian politics and public policy at the University of Toronto, doesn’t believe the government should ban corporate and union donations in Ontario because it might be an infringement of free speech. But she does recognize that federal changes on the issue that began more than a decade ago have signaled an inevitable shift to the provincial level.
“Corporations, even before 2003, had started to withdraw from the political arena because of perceptions, boycotts and damage to their reputations,” she says. “Corporations, even the big banks, were not terribly strong players. Corporations seem to have vacated the political forum because they have constraints, but public sector unions have no equivalent constraints that I know of.”
Read: Who are the top earners in pensions and HR in Ontario’s public sector?
Besides OMERS and the Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan, some of the larger consultancies and insurance companies in the pension and benefits industry are in the database. They include Eckler Ltd., Manulife Financial Inc., Morneau Shepell Inc., PBI Actuarial Consultants Ltd., Smart Employee Benefits, and Sun Life.
In the 2013 annual period, Eckler Ltd. donated a total of $8,000 to the Ontario Liberal Party. In 2016, it donated $4,000 to the Ontario Liberal Party in the Whitby-Oshawa byelection. In an emailed comment, the company said: “Eckler supports our clients’ in their social responsibility endeavors as well as contributing to various local charities.”
Manulife Financial has made a number of donations over the years as well. In 2016, it donated $1,000 to the Ontario Liberal Party in the Whitby-Oshawa byelection. It donated just $600 to the Liberals during the 2015 annual period. In 2014, it made donations to the Liberals in byelections ($9,975), while all three parties received contributions in the general election: $5,000 to the Liberals, $9,300 to the Conservatives and $3,000 to the NDP.
“At the company level, we donate to political parties in order to support the democratic process,” said a representative from Manulife in an emailed statement.
Morneau Shepell Inc. contributed to the Conservatives in 2014, 2015 and 2016, as well as the Liberal party in 2015 and 2016. The donations included many byelections, such as a contribution of $9,975 in 2014 to the Conservative party, and $9,870 that year during the general election. It also made donations during byelections in 2015, one to the Conservatives and two to the Liberals. In 2016, it has contributed $6,000 to the Liberals and a further $9,975 during the Whitby-Oshawa byelection.
“Morneau Shepell believes that responsible corporate citizenship demands a strong commitment to a healthy and informed democracy through civic and community involvement,” said a statement from the company. “The company’s management believes that in certain cases, it may be appropriate to use its resources to make contributions to political parties or organizations.
“This policy is in keeping with good corporate citizenship in order to support the democratic political process and is in line with federal and provincial laws. Morneau Shepell supports the two main parties in Ontario equally.”
PBI Actuarial Consultants Ltd. made three donations to the Ontario Liberal Party in 2015 in three different byelections. The total donated was $5,900.
Tony Williams, president of PBI Actuarial Consultants, said it’s not the company’s policy to support any particular political party. “In some cases, we are asked by clients to purchase tickets to attend information or networking events where all or a portion of the cost is a political donation,” he added.
“We have bought tickets to events like this several times in the past. Our policy going forward is that we will leave it to the individual consultant to decide if they wish to attend such events, at their own cost, but PBI won’t make donations to political parties.”
Smart Employee Benefits donated $5,000 to the Liberal Party in 2014 and $250 in 2015.
In the 2014 period, Sun Life made a number of donations to the Conservative Party. Listed in the database as Sun Life, it donated $9,975 in a byelection and $3,825 for the annual period. As Sun Life Financial Services of Canada, it donated $9,975 for the byelection and $3,825 for the annual period.
“We no longer make political donations in Ontario and have not since 2014,” said a spokesperson from Sun Life. “Like other companies in our industry, we used to make an equal donation to both the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties once a year.”
Read: CFIB calls to end ‘bridge benefit’ for government retirees