Water activists to put pension petition before teachers

TORONTO - The Council of Canadians is going head-to-head with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan -- a Goliath in the world of pensions -- over investments in privatized water in Chile.

As close to 20,000 Toronto teachers gather for a back-to-school professional development day Wednesday, the access-to-water activists will be on hand trying to get teachers to sign a petition against the very fund mandated to guarantee the golden years of their retirement.

So far the campaign has been a hard sell with the Ontario Teachers' Federation, which has refused to commit to pressuring the pension plan to divest from the investment after a meeting with the council in February.

The council was also disappointed after a meeting that same month with the CEO and president of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Jim Leech, who says it's up to the people of Chile to decide how they want to provide water to their people.

Child mortality rates in Chile have gone down since privatization was implemented in the 1990s, Leech added.

The pension plan has invested in three Chilean water companies that together make up about one-third of the regulated water and waste water market in the South American country. The pension plan got involved in 2007 because they thought it was a good investment, Leech said.

The plan owns about 50 per cent of each company for a sum total investment of less than $1 billion, and "less than one per cent of the fund's total assets," he added.

Leech wouldn't say what the return on private water investments in Chile have been, but he said it has met expectations and the pension fund is pleased with its performance.

Some 300 teachers have signed the council's petition so far, which calls on the pension plan to "defend the right to public water services by divesting from Chile water markets."

The council's presence outside Toronto's Air Canada Centre on Wednesday -- where inside teachers will hear educators as well as musical acts Nikki Yanofsky and the Canadian Tenors -- will mark the beginning of a new drive to reach out to teachers more directly.

At issue is the public versus private debate for a resource the Council of Canadians argues is a human right.

The council's Maude Barlow, who recently championed a United Nations resolution to declare water a basic human right, said private water services increase prices for consumers and hinder access.

"You have to cut corners or you have to charge a lot of money -- or both," Barlow said.

"In the end the prices go up. On average around the world it's about 50 per cent higher for private water services, and if you're poor that 50 per cent can be the difference between being able to have it and not."

Barlow said the teachers she's spoken with are shocked to learn their pension is investing in privatized water, especially since many of them believe the service, much like education, should be public.

Bill Thompson, a teacher who signed the petition, said he thinks the pension fund is very well run and is heartened to know it's providing good returns.

But Thompson said he'd be willing to take a cut if it meant putting the money somewhere else -- not in privatized water.

"Surely that's not the only thing that's going to invest and bring in a return at that level," Thompson said on the phone from Woodstock, Ont.

Teacher Susan Sheard, who also signed the petition, said it's hypocritical to be investing in privatized water.

"Teachers are supposed to be concerned about children and future generations," she said, adding she doesn't think privately run water services will ensure the resource is protected in the long-run.

But Leech said in addition to the child-mortality rate going down the country's gross domestic product has gone up since water was privatized.

"I think the Council of Canadians sometimes gets itself wound up over Canada," Leech said.

"The model in Canada has traditionally been that the state is the provider of water and sewage. But that didn't come down with Moses."

Just because Canada works with a public model doesn't mean the private model can't work in other countries, Leech added.

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has close to $100 billion in net assets and 289,000 members. Last year, it had an overall return of about 13 per cent -- on the higher end of the scale in the pension industry, Leech said.

"I think we would agree with many of the points that they make with regard to the fact that water is very precious," Leech said of the council's campaign.

"Where we disagree would be when they take it to the philosophical, basically political end, which is `and therefore government is the only way to provide water and sanitation to the people,' " he added.

"It's really up to the people to decide."