The Alberta government on Thursday removed the entire board of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), citing years of failing to meet mandated benchmark returns at the $170 billion pension management fund.

Finance Minister Nate Horner announced the immediate departure of CEO Evan Siddall and three other top executives. Horner will temporarily serve as the sole director and board chair, though he will not make investment decisions or receive compensation in this role. “I’m doing this because I have to,” Horner told reporters at the legislature, pointing to increasing operating costs and management fees without corresponding returns.

The decision follows a public meeting on the Heritage Savings Trust Fund Wednesday evening that highlighted ongoing concerns about AIMCo’s costs. The organization manages investments for several provincial government funds, including the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, and pension plans serving hundreds of thousands of Alberta public sector workers, including teachers, municipal police officers, university staff, and public servants.

While an order-in-council appointed Horner as board chair until September 30, 2025, he committed to naming a new board chair within 30 days and expects to appoint an interim CEO “within days.”

The move has drawn criticism from opposition finance critic Court Ellingson, who expressed alarm about government intervention. “It makes Albertans question the stability of this fund… whether or not that fund really is under the thumb of the premier and the finance minister,” he said, questioning the timing and urgency of such a “drastic and earth-shattering” change.

This upheaval follows AIMCo’s troubled recent history, including a $2.1 billion loss in 2020 from a volatile market bet, which led to the departure of then-CEO Kevin Uebelein and the appointment of Siddall, former head of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. 

The organization’s reach expanded in 2019 when the United Conservative Party government mandated that the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund and three major public sector pension plans use AIMCo as their exclusive investment manager.

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