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Joe Hornyak
Former editor of Benefits and Pensions Monitor and founder of Joe Hornyak Communications
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More Shutdowns Unlikely
Jean David Tremblay-Frenette, AIMCo’s director of investment strategy research, says there is no need to be worried about a broader, longer economic slowdown. While vaccination rates, improved testing, and greater information about COVID-19 triggered optimism and set up a strong start to 2021, cases beginning to rise for a fourth time along with worries about the new Delta variant make the future look more uncertain again. The Delta variant is more severe and about two times more contagious than previous variants and has also caused breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people. In the case of Canada, declines in exports and flatter than expected consumer spending in April through to June led to a 0.3 per cent contraction in the Canadian economy. There are signs that Delta may be having an effect over the third quarter in the world’s two largest economies, too. In China, a country with a zero-COVID policy, economic growth also hit the brakes in July while in the U.S., early indications for the third quarter of 2021 suggest that economic growth momentum could be waning in the third quarter as well. “We should expect sequential growth to rebound this fall on economic re-opening and government continued stimulus support. In jurisdictions where there is no zero-COVID policy, such as Canada, the U.S., Europe, and some of the major emerging economies, we do not anticipate further total economic lockdowns even if cases continue to rise this fall,” says Tremblay-Frenette.
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OMERS Refutes Claim
A claim by a former managing director that he was wrongfully dismissed is baseless, says the?Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. The?lawsuit?claims two employees were dismissed from OMERS in retaliation for not accepting changes to their compensation package. In a statement of defense and counterclaim filed with the Superior Court of Justice, OMERS says the claim one employee was owed C$65 million after being fired, is “grossly exaggerated.” In 2013, OMERS created a long-term incentive plan for employees in its private equity unit, which allowed them to keep 10 per cent of gains above an eight per cent annual hurdle rate. That compares to a 20 per cent sharing rate for workers at independent private equity firms OMERS competes with, says the claim. “At its heart, the plaintiff’s claim is about attempting to increase the size of his already significant ‘bonus’ entitlements and also to obtain additional bonus amounts for the period he is no longer working or contributing to value creation activities within OMERS PE,” it says.
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