Canada

CANADA - The C$41bn Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System (OMERS) has bolstered both its real estate and infrastructure portfolios with the purchase of seven hotels and laboratory services firm MDS Diagnostic Services.

CANADA - The C$41bn Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System (OMERS) is eyeing emerging markets infrastructure investments and could make its first investment in India or China in the next two years.

CANADA - The number of private pension plans on the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions' (OSFI) watch list rose 10% from 77 to 86 at the end of the fiscal year.

CANADA - Canadian institutions have yet to take any meaningful action on the growing risks posed by climate change, despite their growing awareness, the Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP4) Canada 280 report has found.

CANADA - BGI is on the hunt for the first institutional clients for its suite of liability driven investment (LDI) funds, set to be rolled out across the whole of Canada before the end of the year.

CANADA - Canadian institutional investors are to "rapidly" increase their non-domestic fixed income allocations in the coming months, Greenwich Associates claimed.

CANADA - Robert Astley, formerly president of Sun Life Financial Canada, has been appointed to the board of directors for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), it was announced yesterday.

NORTH AMERICA - Four out of five US and Canadian DB pension plans would consider outsourcing their plan management, while nearly a third will close their plan by 2007, a poll by SEI has found.

CANADA - Unions representing more than 20,000 Nova Scotia health care workers will now be able to bargain for better pensions.

Canadian pension fund giants are prevented from investing in local infrastructure by erratic regulation and a lack of government initiatives, industry players have claimed.