Left-wing policies put AIMCo leadership on collision course with UCP

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It’s little wonder that Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives turfed the leadership group of AIMCo and might well prefer former prime minister Stephen Harper as chairman of the board.

AIMCo’s policies were on a direct collision course with the foundational beliefs of the United Conservative Party.

North American conservatives are fed up with government and corporations adopting and pushing policies favoured by the progressive left, such as any move to specifically designate investment funds to companies that claim to align with Paris Accord climate change goals, as well as recruiting practices that favour some races and genders in hiring and promotion over others.

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Smith’s government has not yet spoken out about this aspect of the AIMCo purge. But having talked with government insiders, it’s my strong sense that this was a key driver for the UCP changing out AIMCo’s leadership.

The concern is that such an agenda distracts from AIMCo’s goals of keeping costs down and getting the best return possible for Alberta pensions and endowments, including the Heritage Savings Trust Fund.

Adopting such policies can also drive up costs by adding layers of new management brought in to populate ESG (environment, social, governance) and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) groups within the company. I note that when it announced its AIMCo reset earlier this month, the UCP focused on AIMCo’s significant increases in operating costs and staffing without a corresponding increase to return on investment, pointing out that the number of employees increased by 29 per cent from 2019 to 2023, with wages and benefits up 71 per cent.

Alberta corporations never used to have ESG or DEI departments or groups, but now many of them do, including AIMCo. For the past few years AIMCo has churned out regular reports and public statements on its progress in these two areas.

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The company felt it necessary to go down the ESG path, saying it was part of its fiduciary responsibility. As one AIMCo executive recently put it, “As a long-term investor, we work to identify material ESG risks and opportunities that create value for our clients.”

As far back as 2020, AIMCo positioned itself as a DEI leader in Canada. It boasted it was one of the first nine signatories of the Canadian Investor Statement on Diversity and Inclusion and pushed to have gender parity on its board.

In late October, it posted a new job notice for senior manager of DEI “to lead our efforts in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion and economic reconciliation across all aspects of our organization.”

The job posting got plenty of negative attention in conservative circles. It was likely a last straw in enacting the head office purge. It came just as the UCP was heading into its annual general meeting, where the first policy resolution debated and accepted was against DEI.

This resolution stated that the UCP should ensure that all hiring practices within the public service and Crown corporations be based on merit, competency, and equality and that all DEI training should be eliminated. “Hiring practices where emphasis is placed on diversity and inclusion do not promote equality, are discriminatory, divisive and may in fact lead to bigotry in the workplace,” the framers of the policy argued.

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It’s important to note that in going down the ESG and DEI path, AIMCo was not doing anything unusual. Many corporations have followed this trend.

It’s also the case that progressive left governments in the Western world are putting in laws making it difficult for companies that refuse to go down the ESG/DEI path. If AIMCo ignored this and its investments were hammered by new ESG regulations, an argument can be made it would be failing in its duty to properly steward its investments.

But the world is changing sharply once again. American states are bringing in laws forbidding ESG. Donald Trump has relentlessly attacked the climate change agenda of leaders like Kamala Harris and Justin Trudeau.

Investors and companies will now play by different rules. Efficiency and prosperity will be more of the focus, not ESG and DEI goals.

In regards to DEI, most Albertans strongly agree with the notion that organizations are best if they’re diverse, with people of all kinds of backgrounds and viewpoints having key jobs. But do they support top-down forcing, with race and gender hiring quotas?

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I see such measures as discriminatory, with no great benefit that outweigh their harm.

I support Alberta and other Canadian jurisdictions joining in the fight against ESG and DEI. If governmental or Crown board members don’t want to change their ways in this regard, they should make way for those who do, such as Harper.

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