Message from the Chair and Vice-Chair

The Plan's Trustees have a singular focus on the pension promise; our mission is to pay pensions today and preserve pensions for tomorrow.

This past year, the 20^th anniversary of OPTrust, was a turning point in our history.

We are pleased to report that the Plan is fully funded and that we have taken key steps to make it more likely we will remain fully funded in the future.

In 2015, the Board considered and approved a fundamental change in our investment strategy – one that will shift our approach from that of asset manager to that of pension manager. Rather than focus on relative returns, irrespective of funded status, we will explicitly focus on maintaining and improving our funded status and thus our ability to meet our pension promise. Our "member-driven investing" (MDI) strategy was developed with our beneficiaries in mind and we believe it better aligns our activities with the interests of those we serve.

The Board also oversaw further refinements to the Trust’s governance structure including aligning our board meetings with the business planning cycle of the Trust and the key decisions this cycle requires Trustees to consider. Finally, we reviewed our delegation of authorities to the CEO and approved a process to consolidate and update board policies – in tandem with a similar process for management policies.

Board changes

In March 2015, Scott Campbell left the Board of Trustees. Scott is a former senior civil servant who served the Province in a number of roles, including that of Chief Information Officer. Appointed in 2009, Scott worked with the Board in a variety of capacities, including acting as Chair. We wish to thank him for his long service on behalf of the beneficiaries of the Trust and wish him all the best in the future.

In November 2015, the mandates of Tim Hannah and Patricia Li as Chairs of, respectively, the Human Resources and Compensation and the Audit, Finance, and Risk Committees, were extended by one year.

In December 2015, we were extremely saddened to learn of the untimely passing of our Board colleague Linda MacKinnon. Appointed by OPSEU, Linda was a dedicated and conscientious Trustee who was strongly committed to ensuring that the interests of the Plan’s members were considered and represented in the Board’s decisions.

We wish to express our thanks and appreciation to all of our fellow Trustees and to OPTrust’s management and staff for the hard work and dedication they show each day. Together, we will continue to work hard to provide the retirement security our beneficiaries expect and deserve.