In the days after New Brunswick’s auditor general, Kim Adair-MacPherson, took the unusual step of asking MLAs to make legislative changes to allow her to audit the manager of the public service pension fund, a split has emerged between the opposition and premier Blaine Higgs.
In her latest report, Adair-MacPherson detailed her attempts to obtain the necessary information to audit Vestcor, the third party manager of $18 billion in pension funds for public servants and teachers, arguing that the investment manager is a recipient of public funds.
“Regardless of the legal form, Vestcor is managing over $18 billion in public sector assets,” Adair-MacPherson told reporters on Tuesday.
“My office clearly has a follow the dollar mandate.”
The company disagrees, saying it is not required to hand over the requested information.
“Our organization is not a public entity or a significant recipient of public funding, but a private not-for-profit corporation controlled by its independent member organizations, the New Brunswick Public Service Pension Plan and the New Brunswick Teachers’ Pension Plan,” reads a statement posted to the company’s website.
The impasse led to an unusual request: Adair-MacPherson asked MLAs to make changes to the Auditor General Act to explicitly include Vestcor as an entity that can be audited and to call the company before the public accounts committee yearly to face questions from lawmakers.
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A day after the request, the public accounts committee backed her request, unanimously passing a motion calling on representatives from the company to appear on an annual basis. While there was no mention of legislative changes, opposition parties said they were keen to pursue that route as well.
It was the Liberal government of Brian Gallant who oversaw the creation of Vestcor in 2016 and the interim leader of the party, Roger Melanson, says they want to clear up any “unintended consequences” of the creationary legislation.
“I think it was an oversight,” Melanson said.
“There’s nothing wrong with correcting the unintended consequences.”
Government MLAs backed the motion calling on the investment firm to appear before the public accounts committee, along with a strong endorsement of support for Adair-MacPherson from backbencher Jeff Carr.
“The members of the government side support the motion fully, keeping in the spirit and the theme of government members supporting the auditor general fully at all times,” he said Wednesday.
But just hours later, the premier appeared to contradict that message of support, saying the government does not agree that the AG should be able to audit Vestcor.
“There is no plan to change legislation. Vestcor was set up to operate independently, reporting to shareholders, who are the pension holders,” Higgs said in a statement.
“I understand it was voted on to have Vestcor appear at Public Accounts, and I hope that will result in the committee fully understanding the structure and reporting practices of Vestcor.”
Since the government won’t be introducing changes to the relevant legislation, Melanson says the Liberal caucus will. He’s optimistic that some government members may support it.
“There’s over $400 million contributed annually either by the government and the employees, who will become pensioners. You’d think as a government, you’d want to make sure that those dollars are well-invested and operationally, Vestcor is efficient,” Melanson said.
The next sitting of the legislative assembly is scheduled for March 16.
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