Growing calls to divest B.C.'s public pension fund from Russian companies

As the Ukrainian people remain under siege, there is mounting pressure for B.C.'s public sector pension fund to divest from Russian companies.

The B.C. Investment Management Corporation had approximately $450 million worth of holdings in various Russian industries as of the latest inventory, released in March 2021. That included $103.89 million in financial services company Sberbank and $32.3 million in energy giant Rosneft, both of which are state-owned. 

Days into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a petition has been circulating online calling on BCIMC to divest on behalf of public pension members who "don't want to be bankrolling" Vladimir Putin's regime.

"There is zero justification, moral or financial, for continuing to hold shares in Russian companies, many of which are now subject to international sanctions," it reads.

"There are surely many ethical and climate-friendly investment alternatives, in Canada or abroad, with better rates of return."

The petition also notes that BCIMC manages $199.6 billion in assets, meaning that Russian companies represent a small fraction of its portfolio.

Premier John Horgan expressed support for divestment during question period Monday, but stressed that elected officials do not dictate BCIMC's decisions.

"These are directed by trustees of pension funds, and those trustees would have heard and seen the horrors that are emerging from Ukraine," Horgan told the legislature.

"Trustees have the authority and the ability to manage those issues and I'll leave it up to them to do that."

The opposition B.C. Liberals and Green Party have both called for divestment from Russian-owned businesses, with the Greens encouraging a full divestment from all oil and gas development by the end of the year.

"That same way we cannot profit from an authoritarian regime hell-bent on war, we cannot profit from the climate crisis, which is on track to cause untold damage to all," leader Sonia Furstenau said in a statement.

Recently elected Liberal leader Kevin Falcon acknowledged it is "generally not appropriate for government to interfere in the decision-making of an independent body like BCIMC," but still urged Finance Minister Selina Robinson to "encourage immediate divestment from Russian-backed companies" that may be profiting from the Ukrainian conflict.

The B.C. Liberals have also called on the NDP government to search land titles for evidence of ownership by Russian oligarchs.