Good morning. The board chair of one of Canada’s largest provincial pension plans has been suspended after the simultaneous departure of three senior executives brought to light months of internal tensions. That’s in focus today — plus, what’s driving a regional shift in Canada’s housing market.

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Mining: Canadian companies are on the cusp of victory over compensation claims for gold deposits seized in Venezuela.

Tech: Shares of legal information and software companies tumbled after Anthropic launched an AI product that investors fear could undermine the established industry.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper urged political parties to work together for the sake of national unity, saying the country must be prepared to make any sacrifice necessary to preserve Canada’s independence.

Harper made the remarks as part of a ceremony last night to unveil his official prime ministerial portrait, an event that included Prime Minister Mark Carney paying tribute Harper’s decade in the role, Stephanie Levitz reports.

CAAT, a $23-billion pension plan, is facing a governance crisis after senior executives raised concerns about a $1.6-million vacation payout to its chief executive and the CEO’s relationship with an employee - both with the blessing of the company’s board.

The Globe’s James Bradshaw reported yesterday that the board’s chair had been suspended as a result – and the company is facing questions about oversight from its own independent investigation and Ontario’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority.

The concerns under investigation do not appear to be related to CAAT’s investment performance – the plan is well-funded, with $1.24 in assets for every dollar it expects to owe – but reputational damage can create secondary risks such as loss of trust and more regulatory scrutiny, experts say.

“Issues like this can become financial because they change behaviour inside the institution and expectations outside it,” said Ian Robertson, partner at The Jefferson Hawthorne Group, a corporate advisory firm. “They increase operational friction, raise decision latency and degrade the quality of risk taking, which eventually translate to the bottom line.”

About the players

• CAAT: The Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan serves Ontario’s colleges and more than 800 public- and private-sector employers, including The Globe and Mail. It has a total of about 125,000 members, making it one of the largest provincial pension plans in Canada. 
• OPSEU: The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is one of the largest and most powerful plan sponsors within CAAT, both in terms of membership and ability to appoint board members.

The departures

The pension plan announced in an e-mail to staff on Jan. 20 that three top executives – chief information officer Asif Haque, chief financial officer Mike Dawson and chief pension officer Evan Howard – had resigned the previous day, but it provided no explanation. In the internal memo, CEO Derek Dobson cites a need for “the right alignment of our executive team,” adding that “all three executives are leaving the organization on good terms.”

The suspension

In fact, the three executives left the organization after they warned board members they had lost faith in Dobson’s leadership, Bradshaw reported, citing three sources.

In the wake of those departures, board chair Don Smith was suspended from his position on the board of trustees at the CAAT Pension Plan by OPSEU, the union that appointed him. A union spokesperson confirmed to The Globe that it had suspended “one trustee from their position, pending an internal investigation,” but did not name the board member, nor say when the decision was made.

Behind the scenes

Tensions inside the pension plan’s senior ranks had been mounting for months. One of the key flashpoints was the $1.6-million vacation payout to Dobson that board leadership approved last year in lieu of vacation time. Senior executives questioned the size and the approval process of the payout – the third such payment Dobson had received.

Another was a workplace relationship that he had been having with a CAAT employee that the board sanctioned, which Dobson disclosed in late 2024. The company said external counsel reviewed the situation, and CAAT implemented guardrails – including removing the CEO from any decisions affecting the employee’s performance or compensation. Still, some staff and trustees questioned whether the board should have allowed the relationship.

What’s next