Notice Goodmans LLP in both links.....

Notice the words below :to include investments in“infrastructure corporations”...

Develpment corp...aka Infrastructure corp.

This proposed change would allow folks like Ontario teachers pension fund, Ontario teachers pension fund...etc..to invest more than 30% in an infrastructure corp. as long as they were in Ontario.

http://www.goodmans.ca/Doc/Noront_Initiates_Co_ordinated_Environmental_Assessment_Review_Process_in_the_Ring_of_Fire

http://www.goodmans.ca/files/file/docs/11.11.2014%20Pensions%20Update.pdf

Pensions Law

November 11, 2014

Ontario Proposes Exemption to

the 30% Rule for Pension

Investment in Infrastructure

On November 10, 2014, the Pension Policy Branch of

the Ontario Ministry of Finance released for public

comment a proposed amendment to the Regulations

under the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario) (the PBA) that

would provide an exemption from the so-called “30%

Rule” for pension investment in infrastructure.

The 30% Rule is a quantitative limit on investments

by pension plans found in the federal Pension Benefits

Standards Regulations, 1985 that is incorporated by

reference into the PBA. The 30% Rule provides that

the administrator of a plan shall not, directly or indirectly,

invest the moneys of the plan in the securities of a

corporation to which are attached more than 30% of

the votes that may be cast to elect the corporation’s

directors. There currently are exemptions to the 30%

Rule for investments in “real estate corporations”,

“resource companies” and “investment corporations”,

provided certain requirements are met.

Many stakeholders have advocated the elimination of

the 30% Rule over the years. In October 2008, the

Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions headed by

Harry Arthurs released a report entitled A Fine Balance

that recommended, among other things, that:

• the Ontario government should consider

establishing its own investment rules, and

• any plan with some recognized form of joint

governance and with the requisite capacity to make

complex investment decisions be allowed to adopt

a resolution claiming an exemption from the 30%

Rule.

Despite widespread support for these recommendations,

the federal government announced in May 2010 that it

had no intention of changing the 30% Rule, stating that

it remained appropriate at the time for prudential

reasons.

In the 2013 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review,

the government of Ontario announced that it would

propose regulations to allow pension plans to invest

further in local infrastructure by exempting

investments in Ontario public infrastructure projects

from the 30% Rule. The proposed amendment to

Regulation 909 would implement this proposal by

extending the existing exemptions to the 30% Rule

for Ontario pension plans to include investments in

“infrastructure corporations”.

For the purposes of the exemption:

• an infrastructure corporation would be required

to limit its activities to “acquiring, constructing,

holding, developing, maintaining, improving,

managing, operating, leasing, or disposing of

public infrastructure”

• “public infrastructure” would be defined as “the

physical structures and associated facilities by or

through which a public service is provided in

Ontario”, including (but not limited to):

o public transit

o road, highways, and bridges

o health care facilities and hospitals

o administration of justice, including

courthouses and prisons

o educational facilities, including primary,

secondary and post-secondary institutions

o power generation, transmission and

distribution networks

o water and waste management systems

o land registry systems

o medical or research institutes

o recreational or cultural facilities

o housing

o lottery and gaming facilities

o telecommunications

provided the infrastructure is located exclusively in

Ontario.

As with the current exemptions for real estate,

resource and investment corporations, a pension plan

administrator could only benefit from the exemption

to the 30% Rule if it filed with the Superintendent a

prescribed form of undertaking by the infrastructure

corporation.

Stakeholders are invited to comment on all aspects of

this proposal, a copy of which is available at the Service

Ontario website. Comments are due by January 9,

2015.

Please contact any member of our Pensions Group for