Thread by @yomeeks

This is your daily pension announcement: The war room at the Chez Meek is ready at action stations!! Here is UCP MLA Ron Orr (Ponoka) @RonOrrMLA reviewing the ATRF pension hijacking. I am going to have to go through this again... #ABLeg #ABEd

ponokanews.com/opinion/mla-ro…

First, I would like to commend @RonOrrMLA. He has definitely tried to dig into this complex and multifaceted issue. I am not being facetious. He has dug in deeper than most MLAs. I do need him to engage in some critical thinking and challenge Travis occasionally. #getthehistory

Ron should be concerned about re-electability. These pension changes are abusive in nature. You will please note that he does not comment on the wider changes to other public sector plans. I think police officers, fire fighters and others should communicate with Ron.

Time to share their feelings with @RonOrrMLA. On to his opinion piece in the Ponoka News: (BTW could someone share this with him in the form of an email.) If he wants to talk with me I will drive to Ponoka. #getthehistoryright #handsoffmypension

1. @RonOrrMLA says "The teachers’ union has been misrepresenting this by claiming that government had taken over the teachers’ pensions." Nope. Please review the ATA's website. It has voluminous materials that say GOA...

...is taking over part of the operations of ATRF. The largest part of ATRF operations. @RonOrrMLA admit it. Beacause you kinda but not really admit that it is a partial takeover. #kindanotreally

2. @RonOrrMLA says "The teachers still retain 100% ownership of the funds". This Ron is true. You got that right. :)

WHY WOULD YOU NOT CONSULT THE OWNERS OF THE FUNDS IF YOU MOVED THEM TO A NEW INVESTMENT MANAGER? #wrongthingtodo

3. @RonOrrMLA says "through their board will have full governance and oversight of their plan and investments." Partially true. It will have governance and oversight except for being able to fire under-performing investment managers and under-performing investment executives.

So that is a pretty big exclusion from being able to govern the ATRF plan. You have stepped out and put unreasonable handcuffs on the ATRF Board to prevent them from doing their job.

4. @RonOrrMLA says "For those that don’t know, this means that every teacher will get paid a government guaranteed pension until the day they die; no matter if the pension plan performs well or not."

This is false. @RonOrrMLA is to be excused on this one because Travis has gone around spreading this lie.

This confuses (intentionally in my view) ATRF with LAPP. SFPP, and PSPP.

The GOA guarantee on the ATRF pension was removed in 1992. #lookitup
The ATRF plan (unlike the other plans) is jointly sponsored. It has been for 80 years.
Both teachers and GOA would be on the hook for future liabilities.

Which means you should have consulted with teachers.

5. @RonOrrMLA says "Their union told them that the ATRF managers had higher returns than AIMCO."

False.
The ATRF said they had higher returns than AIMCO. The ATRF is not a union. And, when you apply an accepted methodology in comparing returns they are higher. #really

6. @RonOrrMLA says "That is very debatable; it only appears this way because the ATRF reports on a different year-end than AIMCo. Their returns are actually quite comparable, and AIMCo often out-performs the ATRF."

Ron, you need to ask where this information is coming from. The return data needs to be adjusted for risk, year end and portfolio composition. AIMCo did not do this and still provided return data to GOA.

This is a massive conflict of interest. Some person who will get a bonus bigger than your annual paycheck is incented to not do any work that would make ATRF look good.

Do you really think you should get ATRF return data from AIMCO? #really

Of course, this could have been solved to the satisfaction of all the parties involved. Call in a third party, the OAG, to use a reasonable methodology to compare returns.

AIMCo prepared the business case that went to GOA Cabinet. That is poor governance all day long.

7. @RonOrrMLA then says "Moving the ATRF under the investment management of AIMCo is estimated to save $41 million in administration costs annually."

#bullshit

ATRF only spends $28 million on investment admin; HOW CAN THEY SAVE $41 MILLION?

@RonOrrMLA it is right in the ATRF Annual report. Look it up. Is AIMCo pulling the wool over your eyes? #canttrustAIMCo #AIMCO #handsoffmypension

8. @RonOrrMLA then says: "Savings like this are in all Albertans’ interests."

True

I am cheap. Just ask my kids. I love saving money.

But the risk that the OAG needs to address is that if the plan under-performs by 0.1% then all savings are lost and it costs you more.

AIMCo wrote the business case to support this move. It is entirely deficient in saying where these savings will come from. #conflictofinterest

Ron, you can't trust these people. You have employees who are CFA charter holders that should be doing this work for you. #whynot

Read the business case because all they do is make a wild ass guess: "an initial high level estimate of cost savings indicate that ATRF annual costs could be lowered by 25 bps"

They make no quantifiable argument as to where the savings comes from.

9. @RonOrrMLA says "Are teachers being singled out? No, every other public sector pension in Alberta has AIMCo as an investment management partner."

Teachers should be singled out because they are the only jointly sponsored plan. Lumping them in with plans that are not is wrong.

Of course, what @RonOrrMLA fails to mention ( #gaslighting ) is that all the other public sector plans had just been given the ability to fire #AIMCo and Bill 22 removed that too.

Doing so at the behest of AIMCo is poor public policy.

#handsoffmypension

@RonOrrMLA 10. @RonOrrMLA then says "Regardless, teachers still have a guaranteed plan, for life, no matter who manages it."

#bullshit
GOA removed the guarantee in 1992.

Remind me again, whose money is this?

@RonOrrMLA then says "This change is part of our government’s efforts to manage our finances more efficiently and effectively – and this move does just that."

My calculation shows that this move will cost GOA $80-100 million each and every year going forward.

Ron, decisions of this nature require more than an 8 page puff piece by a conflicted party to support the decision.

#handsoffmypension #aimcoisconflicted #conflictofinterest

@RonOrrMLA while we are at it, why with your last cabinet meeting before holidays did you appoint an oil and gas portfolio manager to the ATRF Board? His name is Rafi and he is an associate of W. Brett Wilson. He pushes out a Board member with a far deeper skill set. #crony