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Canadian Pensions' Role in Fostering a Stronger Canadian Domestic Economy: Let's Not "Boil The Ocean"
In recent remarks, Stephen Poloz, a former head of Canada's central bank, reiterated the view that any effort to harness the pensions' investing capacity domestically should be focused on very specific, targeted priorities.
By: Neil HrabOn February 5th, Stephen Poloz, a former head of Canada's central bank, delivered a wide-ranging speech in Toronto. His remarks included some brief observations about the possible domestic economic development role of the country's large pension plans.
The bulk of Poloz's remarks focused on ways to deal with the various dark clouds hovering over what he described as a currently weak Canadian national economy (which has been hit by the recent “Trump tariff” shock).
His remarks concerning Canadian pensions (admittedly short and to the point) represented his first major personal public statement on the topic since being tasked by Canada's federal government last year with leading a special study of the pensions' ability to contribute to Canadian domestic prosperity by investing more in Canadian assets.
As part of that study, as noted in the government document where his subsequent recommendations on ways to foster pension investing appeared, Poloz gathered input from “pension funds, equity investors, academics, unions, and industry representatives.”
In his Feb. 5th remarks, Poloz reiterated the view that any effort to harness the pensions' investing capacity domestically should be focused on very specific, targeted priorities.
With his characteristic dry sense of humor, Poloz observed that while he received a gratifyingly high number of excellent submissions presenting interesting ideas about pension investing, many proposed to in effect “boil the ocean” – that is, to take on some very difficult task or problem, with a low probability of potential success.
To paraphrase Poloz's very measured and diplomatic perspective from Feb. 5: For Canada to get more bang domestically out of the investment side of its pension sector, it's better to have five workable ideas than 200 overambitious or long-shot concepts.
Practical advice from an eminently practical man.
A video recording of Poloz's speech can be viewed here.
Neil Hrab worked in the Canadian pension sector for 12 years. His views are entirely his own.
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