Advocacy group claims influential pension evaluator is downplaying climate risk

The federal office tasked with ensuring the long-term health of Canadians’ pensions is underestimating one of the biggest threats to people’s retirement plans — climate change, says an advocacy group.

The Office of the Chief Actuary (OCA) is failing to capture the financial risks of climate change in its long-term assessments of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and other public funds, warned advocacy group Shift: Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health in an email to Chief Actuary Assia Billig early this morning.

Reports produced by actuaries “can play a pretty big role in terms of how the funds are managed long term,” so it is critical that the OCA not underestimate the huge, systemic risks posed by climate change, Adam Scott, director of Shift, said in a phone interview with Canada