Read: Coverage of the 2026 Alternative Investment Conference
During the opening keynote at the Alternative Investment Conference, former minister John Baird, who served in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet, discussed how Canada’s 2009 Economic Action Plan aimed to stimulate infrastructure investment. “We spent $45 billion dollars on 23,500 projects. We got them all completed in 30 months.”
He said the plan was so successful, the government wanted to make it permanent. However, that didn’t happen due to environmental concerns, he noted, saying Canada was “left behind” in the ensuing years.
Cue the Canada Investment Summit (nearly 20 years later), which resulted in a confirmed $500 billion in new investments, including contributions from CPP Investments, PSP Investments and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
The summit and the government’s broader focus on building up Canada’s nfrastructure has been a big focus for institutional investors in the past few months, especially how Maple Middle or smaller plans can get involved.
Read: Canada’s inaugural investment summit draws $500 billion from pension funds, banks
Another big topic this year is the debate around the total portfolio approach. As uptake rises, there appears to be a lack of clarity about what TPA is in practice.
While many pension funds are using TPA to look at the entire fund as one single, unified portfolio rather than dividing money into separate silos by asset class, the way portfolios are managed under TPA no longer aligns with how performance has traditionally been measured, according to a white paper published in July by CPP Investments. Benchmark comparisons remain essential to evaluating active management decisions and maintaining accountability, noted the paper, but under TPA, they’re no longer sufficient on their own.
“Measuring the health of a total portfolio requires a broader, multi-faceted framework capable of assessing not only returns, but also the total portfolio’s resilience to adverse market and economic circumstances, the impacts of diversification, concentration and tactical decisions, the effectiveness of implementation and alignment with long-term objectives.”
In this issue’s Head to Head, two experts weigh in on whether benchmarks are outdated in a TPA model. The International Centre for Pension Management’s Adrian Trollor says benchmarks play a lesser role under a TPA model, becoming one of several measures presented to assess the quality of portfolio outcomes. “The shift from a strategic asset allocation approach to a TPA provides an important and much needed catalyst for re-evaluating what success looks like and how to measure it.”
Read: Head to Head: Are benchmarks outdated in a total portfolio model?
In his response, CEM Benchmarking’s Alexander Beath says it depends what questions investors want their benchmark to answer. If they pay for performance, they need better and different benchmarks that identify skill and don’t pay for luck, he writes. “Whatever that benchmark is, however, it won’t answer the question only a reference portfolio can —Do the highly diversified, high-cost and often illiquid portfolios held by modern nstitutional investors outperform simple, low-cost and investible alternatives? This question, I feel, remains unanswered.”
It seems the TPA debate will carry on, especially against the current economic backdrop of uncertainty. For Concordia University, that backdrop is increasing the investment team’s conviction in a multi-strategy portfolio with elements of the TPA, says Boni Abdel Chabi-Yo, in the Trailblazers.
“I think we’re really in a new regime — not like anything we’ve seen before, where you could just buy some bonds and equities and sit back.”
Read: Considering liquidity management pressures amid volatile landscape at Concordia University
Read: 2026 Top 40 Money Managers Report: How is the rise of commodity investments servicing pension funds?
At the same time, the ongoing geopolitical tensions and conflict in the Middle East are a big concern for investors, especially those with commodity holdings. The Investment Feature digs into the rise of gold and other commodity investments. Indeed, precious metals contributed the largest positive contribution to commodity indices in 2025, prompting many pension plan sponsors to leverage that rise to drive portfolio returns and offset broader market volatility.
There’s certainly a lot for institutional investors to digest in the current economic environment, so I hope the features in this issue offer some food for thought.
Jennifer Paterson is the editor of Benefits Canada and the Canadian Investment Review.