Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMco), which manages public-sector pension plans and other provincial government funds, announced a partnership to purchase a 65-per-cent stake in TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline. This is the same management company the Alberta government plans to invest the public sector pensions in and Albertans’ Canada Pension Plan (CPP) in. Last year the company took a four billion dollar loss, as it under performs compared to the current pension plans. However, investments in liquefied natural gas (LNG) are becoming more risky.
Warren Buffett’s pulling his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway’s out of Saguenay, Quebec’s LNG export terminal. Additionally, other investments of LNG and Canada are getting shut down or put on hold. Oddly, this has slowed down Coastal Gaslink’s plans to hire 2,500 more people for the project this Fall.
Buffett’s decision comes at a time when LNG prices are tanking and international investors are pulling their support for fossil fuel projects. Several, have already pulled their investments out of Alberta. Investors are looking at Buffett’s cancellations as a sign of the times.
The Alberta UCP government has refused to divest sufficiently in other areas with most of its eggs in one basket. It’s time! They need to be considering other options. But will they?
