#Environment #Politics #Canada #Oil #Company #Retirement #Pension #Bankrupt #Lies #Pipeline #Violation #Sacred #Lands #Government #Citizen #Community #Opposition
People in Canada are reeling from the devastating announcement that the federal government just purchased the Trans Mountain pipeline. Now the Canada Pension Plan -- where millions of Canadians are saving for their current and future retirements -- is considering investing your hard-earned money in the dangerous and risky pipeline project that infringes upon our native peoples treaties and sacred lands.
These pipelines spill all the time! - Everytime!
When (as its a question of when not if) this pipeline leaks it can ruin the fresh drinking water and hundreds of thousands of Canadians who rely on these fresh water sources to survive. Once a spill occurs it will cause a massive environmental hazard to the oceans, rivers and marine life.
If you ask the B.C. government why it’s trying to block the federally approved Trans Mountain pipeline, it will say it’s all about protecting the ocean. “I’m standing up for the coast, man,” B.C. Premier John Horgan said last month.
Rather than crude oil, the Trans Mountain pipeline will carry diluted bitumen, a heavier and more viscous petroleum product. Pipeline opponents maintain that this makes the project a uniquely dangerous environmental threat.
It’s bad when a tanker hits something and spills fossil fuels into the ocean. The Trans Mountain pipeline will raise the amount of tankers in B.C. waters, thus statistically increasing the chances that one of them will hit something and cause a spill. Currently, about five tankers per month pull into the waters off Vancouver and fill up with diluted bitumen shipped in on the existing Trans Mountain pipeline system. The pipeline expansion would increase that number to more than 30 per month.
There is enough financial uncertainty with this project that even pipeline giant Enbridge won’t touch it! Costs have have spiralled out of control, there are 16 outstanding legal challenges, unfulfilled federal conditions set by the NEB, and the route hearings haven’t yet been completed.
So why is The Canadian Pension Plan saying it will consider this project!? Given it is our money, we deserve a say in how it is -- or isn’t -- invested.
With the CPP’s annual meeting coming up, this a critical moment for the CPP to hear from you that could make a decisive impact.
Please send your voice of opposition to this disastrous plan to loose all Canadians retirement savings in a dirty business - that nobody wants! Your email will be sent straight to the decision makers at the CPP Investment Board.
(Click Picture To Offer Your Support)
I said it before and Ill say it again.
The Canadian government is raising Retirement Pension Plan taxes on our paychecks because they know they are bankrupt and have no hope of delivering on whats actually owed and just trying to take as much as they possible can before they collapse!
I will never see any of the money I am forced to pay via government theft going towards our retirement pension plan.
The canadian debt bubble alone should tell you that. And now they want to risk The entire Canadian retirement pension on the most risky investment of our lifetime!?!?
Why?! So they have an excuse as to why they will never pay us what is owed to us as retirees!?
We have the baby boomers who are now retireing and are more in numbers than the young working folk who pay for thoes liabilities.
Do the math it equals a huge deficiete that the tax slaves have to pay off.
Now how do you suppose we pay for all that when unemployment is threw the roof?
More taxes - we are the ones who have to pay for all thoes liabilities and its currently impossible and thus taxes are slowly being raised.
Wtf! Tell the board to be responsible with our retirement money!
We wont get all that money we worked so hard for when we retire thus we wont be able to retire or else we will starve without anything in regards to our retirement pension. (which we pay every day) to support us in the future.
If we didnt have a third party steal our money (saying its for the good of the people and yet never servicing the people) we would be much better off investing that money OURSELVES!
My Message To The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board
I would like to see the CPP Investment Board commit to not investing in the Trans Mountain pipeline project. The project is widely considered risky to other investors, and the Canada Pension Plan fund should not be putting critical retirement income for people in Canada at risk.
Accessing tidewater will not guarantee a higher price for oilsands oil. Instead, it is likely to become a stranded asset if we take our climate commitments seriously. As well, the pipeline violates Indigenous land and treaty rights, and there is no way to indemnify the investment against that violation.
Substantial research indicates that taking into account environment, social, and governance (ESG) factors is shown to achieve better financial returns. CPPIB seems to understand this: Stephanie Leaist said herself in an op-ed in the Globe and Mail that climate disclosure framework creates a better environment for investors, and the CPP endorsed the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures recommendations.
As well, Mark Machin pledged to step up the assessment of global climate change risks to make better investment decisions. We applaud this, and given this, it seems not in the CPP's interest -- or the interest of Canadians -- to invest in this project.
As with any responsible investment, it is imperative that you do your due diligence and thoroughly interrogate this investment from a financial and business perspective, and make that analysis public so Canadians and their retirement savings are responsibly and safely invested.
A report from Cambridge University found that in the event of a 2°C increase in global temperatures, portfolios with a similar makeup to the CPP could suffer permanent losses of more than 25 per cent within five years.
Finally, there is growing research and legal opinion that pension trustees have a fiduciary duty to consider climate change in investment decisions. The UK’s Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has said, "Climate change is not just an ethical issue for pension fund governance bodies, but a major threat to financial stability highlighted by numerous credible economic commentators and rigorous research. It is therefore imperative that boards and committees consider the potential impact that climate change will have on their investment portfolios."
Please respond and confirm that you are not putting my retirement income at risk by investing in a risky pipeline project.