Canada

CANADA - The C$100bn Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) has appointed Paul Tellier as board chairman of its newly formed private investment company.

CANADA - The furore surrounding public sector pensions has escalated after the nation's largest trade union body threatened a campaign against the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) over its criticism of pension costs.

CANADA - The Ontario government has set up a commission to examine legislation for the funding of defined benefits schemes and conduct the first review of the Pension Benefits Act (PBA) since 1986.

CANADA - RBC Asset Management reported net sales of C$6.7bn for the 12 months ended 31 January 2007, including $5.4bn in long term net sales and $1.3bn in money market net sales.

CANADA - OMERS president and CEO Paul Haggis will be stepping down later this year, after the new governance model changed the nature and focus of the role.

CANADA - The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) said it had "no concerns" with the participation of Canadian financial institutions in hedge funds.

US - Alaska state governor Sarah Palin has requested US$12m from the legislature to sue Mercer Human Resource Consulting over the state's multi-billion dollar pension deficit.

CANADA/US - The C$122bn Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is part of a consortium of investors bidding for NASDAQ-listed higher education provider Laureate Education.

CANADA - The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has again come under fire for its criticism of public employee benefits, after the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) called on the group to "rethink its conclusions".

CANADA - The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has branded the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) criticism of public pensions as a "mean-spirited and economically illiterate attack on the public sector".