Barbara Shecter of the National Post
reports OMERS squeezes out 2.2% return in 'challenging' first half:
The Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System
generated a 2.2 per cent investment return in the first half of 2025
while facing down a “challenging environment for investors” amid global
economic uncertainty and exposure to the United States.
The pension manager’s $3.1-billion gain for the period of Jan. 1 to June 30 pushed its net assets to $140.7 billion.
More than half of the fund’s assets, 55 per cent, are in the U.S., where the Donald Trump administration has destabilized global trade with a series of punitive tariffs.
“OMERS
had a positive start in what was a particularly challenging environment
for investors,” chief executive Blake Hutcheson said. “As we manage
through the current short-term challenges, in both public and private
investing businesses, this team continues to unlock opportunities that
deliver both immediate and long-term value.”
OMERS’
first-half results were hurt by a more than five per cent decline by
the U.S. dollar despite some hedging. The pain was partially offset by
the strengthening of the British pound and the euro, but currency had a
negative impact of 1.2 per cent on its first-half results.
“Active
decisions to hedge currencies added almost one per cent to returns,
protecting portfolio value,” Jonathan Simmons, the fund’s chief
financial and strategy officer, said.
Over
the five years that OMERS has reported mid-year investment results, the
average annual net return has been 8.7 per cent. Over 10 years, the
pension fund has posted an annual net return of 6.9 per cent for a total
gain of $70.2 billion.
Infrastructure and public equities drove returns in the first six months
of 2025, though six of the portfolio’s seven asset classes, including
credit and bonds, contributed positively. Private investments were the
weak spot, with private equity posting a negative return of 1.3 per
cent.
“Private
investment valuations and transaction activity, particularly in private
equities and real estate, continue to be held back by uncertainty in
the global marketplace,” Simmons said.
The
real estate portfolio, which represents 15 per cent of the portfolio,
posted a return of 1.1 per cent in the first six months of the year.
OMERS, along with other Canadian pension funds, owns office buildings
hammered by the shift to remote and hybrid work during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But OMERS said conditions were improving after a series of challenging years for the industry.
“Despite
market uncertainty, results were supported by strong operating
fundamentals, particularly in office and hotels,” it said in a release
on Thursday.
The pension fund for municipal workers in Ontario was also a landlord for insolvent retailer Hudson Bay Co.
OMERS’ real estate division, Oxford Properties,
went to court this month to argue against transferring some of those
leases to an “unvetted and unproven” entrepreneur who is attempting to
buy some former locations of the storied Canadian retailer. The court
filing said the lease transfer could “jeopardize the stability,
reputation, and performance of these assets” in which Oxford has
invested hundreds of millions of dollars.
“A
diminution in the value or stability of Oxford’s real estate portfolio
would negatively impact the performance of OMERS’ investments, and, by
extension, adversely affect the long-term interests of millions of
current and future pension plan beneficiaries,” the Aug. 9 filing said.
James Bradshaw of the Globe and Mail also reports that governments and institutional investors show alignment on big project financing, OMERS CEO says:
Co-operation
among large investors, industry leaders and governments is rapidly
increasing as parties discuss how to get major projects off the ground
to protect Canada against the threat from tariffs, the CEO of the OMERS
pension fund says.
Demand
for new infrastructure, energy and defence investment is surging, and so
is investors’ willingness to explore big-ticket investments in projects
of national importance, Blake Hutcheson, chief executive officer of
Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, said in an interview.
OMERS earned a 2.2-per-cent
return in the first half of 2025, adding $3.1-billion to its assets in
spite of a tough start to the year for markets, according to a mid-year
update released Thursday. With high volatility in public markets and
sluggish dealmaking for public assets, Canadian pension funds are eyeing
a growing opportunity to make new investments at home.
“The
conversations are at a level that I haven’t seen for at least a decade,
where we are exploring some private and public opportunities in
earnest,” Mr. Hutcheson said. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, in
my view, where the governments, the financiers and the pension plans can
and should do some meaningful things in Canada.”
Mr.
Hutcheson was careful to add a caveat that OMERS has a fiduciary duty
to pursue the best returns with the least risk for members, and doesn’t
intend to accept weaker investment results. But he said the “dialogue
and a willingness to do things” are at a high mark.
“Is
it crystal clear, are we ready to jump? The short answer is no,” he
said. “Are we optimistic that we can do things in this space? The answer
is yes. … And for the sake of the country, we’re hopeful.”
Through
the first half of the year, infrastructure investments delivered the
strongest gains for OMERS, increasing by 3.6 per cent, while private
credit and publicly traded stocks produced solid returns.
The
falling value of the U.S. dollar between January and June hampered
OMERS’s investment performance, reducing total gains by 1.2 percentage
points. But OMERS had hedging positions that it increased late last
year, which helped offset some of those currency losses, reducing the
potential drag on its overall results by one percentage point.
With
widespread uncertainty over tariffs, wars, markets and currencies, “we
think it’s a solid start to the year,” Mr. Hutcheson said. “As
investors, you really just want to be certain that you know where the
goalposts are, and they’ve been moving around a lot lately, so it hasn’t
been an easy first half.”
Over
10 years, OMERS has earned an average annual return of 6.9 per cent,
adding more than $70-billion to its portfolio. Over the past five years,
the average gain has been 8.7 per cent.
OMERS invests on behalf of about 640,000 Ontario public-service workers, including nurses, firefighters and police officers.
Its assets increased to $140.7-billion as of June 30, up from $138.2-billion at the end of 2024.
The
OMERS real estate portfolio bounced back with a 1.1-per-cent gain in
the first half of 2025, after suffering a loss last year. The
performance of office properties has started to rebound from pandemic
lows as employers push staff to work from home less frequently.
“We
never lost our commitment to high-quality office,” Mr. Hutcheson said.
“Even in the worst days during COVID, my view was: Never count that
asset class out.”
The lone asset class that produced a half-year loss for OMERS was private equity, down 1.3 per cent.
Earlier today, OMERS issued a press release stating it earned $3.1 billion in the first six months of 2025:
TORONTO, Aug. 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OMERS generated a net
investment return of 2.2%, a gain of $3.1 billion, for the period of
January 1 to June 30, 2025. This result brings the cumulative 10-year
net investment income figure to $70.2 billion. Net assets at June 30,
2025 totalled $140.7 billion.
“OMERS had a positive start in
what was a particularly challenging environment for investors,” said
Blake Hutcheson, OMERS President and CEO. “As we manage through the
current short-term challenges, in both public and private investing
businesses this team continues to unlock opportunities that deliver both
immediate and long-term value. Over the five years that we have
reported our mid-year investment update, our talented global team and
investment strategies have delivered an average annual net return of
8.7%.”
“Six of our seven asset classes delivered positive
results in the first half of 2025. Infrastructure and public equities
drove returns, supported by credit and bonds,” said Jonathan Simmons,
OMERS Chief Financial and Strategy Officer. “Currency had an overall
negative 1.2% impact on our results, driven by a significant decline in
the U.S. dollar, and partially offset by strengthening of the British
pound sterling and euro. Active decisions to hedge currencies added
almost 1% to returns, protecting portfolio value. Private investment
valuations and transaction activity, particularly in private equities
and real estate, continue to be held back by uncertainty in the global
marketplace.”
“While we expect continued market instability for
the remainder of 2025, we believe our diversification in quality assets
positions us well to see through this cycle, with ample liquidity to
pursue opportunities that meet our objective of paying pensions for
generations to come,” said Mr. Hutcheson. “We proudly serve 640,000
Ontarians and we work every day to build lasting value that will serve
them throughout their retirement.”
About OMERS
OMERS
is a jointly sponsored, defined benefit pension plan, with more than
1,000 participating employers ranging from large cities to local
agencies, and 640,000 active, deferred and retired members. Our members
include union and non-union employees of municipalities, school boards,
local boards, transit systems, electrical utilities, emergency services
and children’s aid societies across Ontario. OMERS teams work in
Toronto, London, New York, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Singapore, Sydney and
other major cities across North America and Europe – serving members and
employers, and originating and managing a diversified portfolio of
high-quality investments in government bonds, public and private credit,
public and private equities, infrastructure and real estate.
Media Contact
Don Peat
Director, Media Relations
1 416.417.7385
dpeat@omers.com
Net Assets
$ Billions
Net Return History
to June 30, 2025
6-month
(January 1, 2025 – June 30, 2025)
2.2%, a gain of $3.1 billion 10-year
(July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2025)
6.9%, a gain of $70.2 billion Diversified by Asset Class and Geography
OMERS invests in high-quality assets that are well-diversified by geography and asset type.
Asset Diversification
As at June 30, 2025
Geographic Diversification
As at June 30, 2025
Asset Class Investment Performance
Net Returns Six months ended
June 30, 2025 Government Bonds 2.1 %Public Credit 1.6 %Private Credit 2.7 %Public Equities 2.4 %Private Equities (1.3 %)Infrastructure 3.6 %Real Estate 1.1 %Total Plan 2.2 % Investment Performance Highlights
Over the six months ended June 30, 2025:
- The
more than 5% decline in the U.S. dollar in the first half of the year
meaningfully detracted from our returns across asset classes,
particularly in public and private equity. Our active decisions to hedge
our currency exposure added almost 1% to the portfolio, including an
approximate 30-basis point lift from our increase to U.S. dollar hedges
at the end of 2024. This currency management strategy, combined with our
diversification in the British pound sterling and euro, mitigated the
otherwise negative impact on the portfolio.
- Our strategic focus to deploy into fixed income assets continued to positively contribute to our returns. Government bonds, public and private credit each delivered positive performance primarily due to interest income and a decline in bond yields.
- Public equities delivered
positive performance from core large-cap holdings in financials,
communications services and information technology sectors.
- Private equities were
held back as investor confidence remains challenged and markets
continue to exhibit very low levels of activity. As a result, valuations
continue to be impacted by slow earnings growth and headwinds within
certain industry sectors.
- Infrastructure continues to deliver steady results, with most assets performing in line with expectations.
- Real estate
delivered a positive return after a series of challenging years for the
industry. Despite market uncertainty, results were supported by strong
operating fundamentals, particularly in office and hotels.
Liquidity
We
continue to maintain ample liquidity, with $17.4 billion in liquid
assets to pay pension benefits, fund investment opportunities, satisfy
potential collateral demands related to our use of derivatives, and to
fund expenses.
Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings
This
Investment Update presents certain non-GAAP measures. These measures
are calculated on the same basis as those calculated and presented in
our 2024 Annual Report. This Investment Update and the Condensed Interim Consolidated Financial Statements
(the “Interim Financial Statements”) are unaudited. OMERS
Administration Corporation’s financial performance set out in this
Investment Update is only for the period ended June 30, 2025, unless
otherwise indicated. Past performance may not indicate future
performance because a broad range of uncertainties (including without
limitation those related to interest rates and inflation) could have an
impact on the performance of various asset classes. The financial
information included in this Investment Update should be read in
conjunction with the Interim Financial Statements.
Portfolio update
We continue to invest in assets that build strong futures for communities and members alike.
Below is a selection of activities undertaken since January 1, 2025.
- We
acquired full ownership of a high-quality office portfolio in Western
Canada that includes seven office properties in Calgary’s and
Vancouver's central business districts, totalling 4 million square feet.
This portfolio is 95% occupied.
- We
broke ground on 70 Hudson Yards, the first 1 million plus square foot,
ground-up office development in New York City in over five years.
- We
sold a 9.995% stake in Transgrid, the largest electricity transmission
network in Australia, to Australian sovereign wealth fund, Future Fund.
As part of this transaction, OMERS will manage that interest on their
behalf in addition to our own 9.995% stake.
- We
announced a transformative co-investment of over $200 million to
retrofit the existing office buildings at Canada Square in midtown
Toronto. The redevelopment will deliver 680,000 square feet of highly
functional and modernized office space.
- Our
shopping mall investments were recognized as national and regional
market leaders in sales performance by the International Council of
Shopping Centers. Yorkdale continues to dominate as Canada’s
top-performing shopping centre for the second year running with ~$2,300
in sales per square foot. Square One Shopping Centre and Scarborough
Town Centre also increased their sales per square foot.
- We
officially opened the doors to the $1.3 billion Parkline Place,
celebrating the opening of this new commercial office and retail
destination in Sydney, Australia co-owned by Oxford Properties, and
which includes the first new office tower in Sydney’s Midtown in almost a
decade.
- We announced a joint
partnership with AustralianSuper that aims to build a significant
industrial and logistics venture across Europe. As part of this joint
venture, we announced the acquisition of Broadheath Network Centre in
Greater Manchester.
- OMERS Finance
Trust (OFT) successfully closed two significant note offerings, a EUR 1
billion, 10-year note and a USD 1 billion, 5-year note. This marks OFT’s
third EUR and ninth USD offering.
Subsequent to the end of June:
- We
broke ground on the first major purpose-built housing project in
Scarborough in over a generation on the west side of Oxford’s
Scarborough Town Centre shopping mall. The development will consist of
three residential towers of 1300 units with the aim of delivering
critically needed housing in a historically undersupplied area for
people at a variety of different price points, including a 21%
allocation for affordable housing.
Alright, this afternoon I had a chance to discuss OMERS' mid-year results with CEO Blake Hutcheson and CFO & CSO Jonathan Simmons.
I want to begin by thanking them both for taking the time to talk to me and also thank Don Peat for setting up the Teams meeting and sending me the relevant documents.
As always, these are mid-year results, in line with what OTPP and CDPQ posted but OMERS has a different asset mix, more tilted to private markets (see asset mix above).
I also want to correct something from last week when I covered CPP Investments' quarterly results, OMERS and La Caisse do provide asset class performance for mid-year, OTPP does not.
Alright, Blake began by giving me the overview:
The results are self-explanatory. My main message is it's a very volatile world with respect to geopolitics, with respect to tariff conversations, with respect to currency fluctuations, with respect to elections including in this country.
In the context of all that, we feel our results are a solid start to the year, so we go forward from here with strength but it has been a very difficult investment environment.
You know as well as anybody, one thing you want as an investor is a high degree of certainty, where are the goalposts. This has been a period where there's anything but certainty as the mood of the day can swing depending on one utterance or another.
The good thing is we have a long view and a diversified portfolio and we really try to separate the headlines form the underlying economic fundamentals and facts. That's our best defence, focus on things we can control: high quality assets, lots of diversification, put our energy into our greatness as opposed to the noise of the day. That's going to continue to be our mantra.
You know me, I started in 2020 so I like to keep track of the 5-year return and the 5-year return since my first month or two has been 8.7% which is a compelling story.
It's been an active semester, diversification is helping.
What you might want to see is the currency hurt us so far this year, it's helped us other years, so you can't have blessings every year. It's cost us 1.2% but we are really proud of our hedging strategy because they protected an additional 100 basis points or thereabouts because it could have been a lot worse if they weren't active. And we took all our hedges off for a number of years after 2020, we were thoughtful and redeployed. It was an overt strategy, it largely paid off.
When we look at our plan, our expectations for the year, our credit book, our equities book, our infrastructure are maybe a little bit behind in some cases but on track to meet our budgets.
Our other privates are slower. Real estate, the good news is we are in the black now, that's starting to turn the corner. Our mutual friend Dan Fournier has made a major difference in the culture and consideration we've put in that business.
And our difficult one like many others is our private equity portfolio. We have a new head of private equity, we just finalized the strategy yesterday with our Board as to where that business will go in the future, maybe in the fall we'll take some time to share it with you. We got our arms around where we are strong, where we are weak, where we have to deploy more, where we have to deploy less. That one is a work in progress and we don't see selling or buying, we don't see a lot of activity that gives us data points -- negative or positive -- in the private equity space because again, with all the uncertainty out there, people aren't sellers at prices where we can buy. That business has been our weakest link this half.
I guess the other thing is we remain committed to Canada. The flash numbers say we are down in Canada to 16%, our assets are at about 21% which is where we started the year and it's roughly 55% in the US. The 16% takes into account primarily cash accounts because we used to carry more Canadian cash and we deployed a lot, particularly in real estate the first half.
But our 21% is constant and we are going to continue to invest heavily in the United States, pretty commensurate with our current book, but we want to do more in this country. We feel this is an all hands on deck moment in Canada, we are seeing really positive and hopeful signs come out of the federal government at this point, more so than we've seen in a decade where government decision makers both federally and provincially in most of the Canadian markets we invest across Canada, there's a harmony that didn't exist, there is a sense of mutual purpose that didn't exist, and I think Canadians are coming together.
We are hopeful we can do more, particularly in infrastructure and real estate in Canada to be part of the solution in this all hands on deck moment for our country.
I don't know exactly what that means in terms of allocations -- you know the business well -- we can't give somebody a home court discount, we are a fiduciary, we have to make sure it hits our risk-adjusted expectations and return. It's not that we can -- however big our heart is -- gift anybody when we are responsible for 640,000 people but it does mean we are underwriting more than we have in the past, we are having bigger and more important conversations with various levels of governments than what we had in the last decade.
We want to do more in Canada, we hope to do more in Canada and we want to be part of the go forward success and future of this country.
That's a great overview which covers all the main points.
On infrastructure which had another solid half, Blake added this:
We have 30 assets, it's a broad portfolio, it's a highly concession run asset class for us. With big businesses like Bruce Power, it's been a consistent high single digit asset class for us year in and year out and this year is no exception. It's really the broad shoulders and the consistency of that wide portfolio that continues to get us in the 7-8-9% range and it has less volatility than our other asset classes. You don't see the exit multiples change a lot for those businesses, they stay pretty constant. So it's a steady Eddy business for us, no surprises.
Indeed, the yield is always around 8% or more a year for OMERS and others.
In private equity, I noted that some critics of OMERS purely direct strategy have privately told me that asset class needed to be revamped there but I also note that all pension funds are experiencing a tough slug in PE, not just OMERS, even those that do more fund investments.
Blake responded:
Of our privates, the real estate business not withstanding recent years because it's been difficult, and our infrastructure business have been really steady long-term producers for us with great teams. And our private equity business has done well for us too and I don't want to diminish the contribution it's made for us in any way.
In the last few years, we have had to rethink our strategy because it's hard to compete with the best players in the world when we are relatively small.
So, from a buyout perspective, we retreated from direct investing in Europe, we are very much focused on North America. As we cycle out of those assets in Europe, we will use that capital to redeploy into more fund type investments where bigger players with bigger teams can get into assets we couldn't get to.
I don't want to be critical. We have done a detailed assessment, we are at a point and time where we are changing our focus and strategy. We will consistently and deeply invest in Canada and the United States but less so in Europe and the available capital will go to funds.
With our new head of private equity (Alexander Fraser), he just presented the new strategy this week, there will be lots of nuanced changes to that portfolio to right size it and position it well for the future. That is underway, when we are ready, we will be happy to share with you those prospects.
But we have a really good team, we have a really good new leader and I'm actually energized to see their direction of travel. This was a difficult half not just for us but for most people in the marketplace and sometimes when you get those difficult moments, it gives you the motivation to make the changes you need to make and we are making them.
I noted rates are higher for longer, dampening returns in private equity and real estate and the other thing that worries me is if there will be more inflation in the US, wage inflation can lead to more margin compression in private and publicly listed businesses.
I also noted there was a big Bloomberg article yesterday on how pension funds missed the big tech rally, but pension funds are not there to beat the S&P 500 every year, so while there may be some pressure in privates over the short run, over the long term, they offer more stability and yet people remain focused on the short term.
I asked Blake if they've been feeling this pressure to take risks where they shouldn't be taking risk to deliver higher returns and he responded:
Jonathan and I feel incredibly supported by our board. I can honestly say while short-term results are interesting and certainly people watch our annual results with vigour, we are a long term investor. I don't feel any compulsion to beef up the shorter term at the expense of the longer term.
We all have to be nimble right now. It's an ever changing world. We need to remain on our toes. We need to be assessing all of the inputs from an economic, political and fundamental perspective. You can never be complacent and continue to win in the markets but I don't feel any compulsion to think short term because of the short term pressures, never have, it's not the nature of our board, it's not the nature of the way we approach the business.
And great assets, great management teams, great fundamentals, not in every cycle but they tend to see through cycles, when you compromise asset quality, when you compromise people quality, when you compromise businesses to get some short term yield, it doesn't end so well.
That's the discipline and that the discipline that has enabled us to deliver our 8.7% return in the last five years.
But the private equity component of our business, this isn't something we picked up this year and decided we needed to have a new direction, this has been a 2-3 year focus and it's going to require a few more years to get it to a place where we expect it to be as part of our asset allocation.
Since Blake is an expert in real estate (he was formerly the head of Oxford Properties prior to becoming CEO of OMERS), I asked him if he's seeing signs of a comeback in offices since more companies are demanding back to the office from their workers.
He responded:
I think you've heard me say this consistently even during Covid, people need to live somewhere, people need to work somewhere.
Even in Covid, when everyone was saying the office is going the way of the dodo bird, we were building office buildings at Oxford.
The truth is high quality AA, AAA office buildings will continue to do extremely well and didn't even break during Covid.
Secondary and tertiary assets, many of them are in deep trouble because there is a migration to quality.
Looking at office, our portfolio is best of class in every market we are in around the world. In Toronto, we are 95% leased, across Canada, we are practically 95% leased. We just invested by buying out CPP Investments in seven big office buildings in Canada which put sour conviction where our wallet is.
We just announced a new building we are building in Hudson Yards, 70 Hudson Yards in New York, a large consulting firm is taking 800,000 square feet of 1.4 million, and that will be the first new office building in five years in Manhattan. I'm totally confident it's going to do extremely well.
So in our 62-year history at Oxford but even in the last 10 or 12, when people say thou shouldn't touch and something is going in the wrong direction, we look at the history, high quality great assets, if they're not playing into the fundamentals, we will.
And I like our odds. We finished a building in Vancouver called The Stack, it's ahead of plan from a lease perspective. 70 Hudson Yards will be great. We are just finishing a new building in Sidney, it's going to take a while but it's going to do great.
So, a great office is a great office, we like the trends, we never felt that with high quality assets we were in jeopardy and when everybody else said don't build more, we built more.
I asked Blake if Logistics and Multi-family continue to be the sectors driving the returns at Oxford and he replied:
Logistics interesting enough, uncertainty around supply chains, we are not seeing big appetite, a lot of people are sitting on their hands because why take up more space until they see how this game of chess plays out.
For a while the direction of travel for rates for an industrial building was only one way, it was higher growth than any other sector, that slowed relative to other sectors but we have a great portfolio that's functioning well.
And multi-family, because it's typically a 97% leased business, you have the ability to finance several. You won't really see an improvement until the cost of funds comes down. Because you have a high level of debt, that has a significant impact on yield and values. It will be better in the next 2-3 years as the Fed rate comes down. Right now, it's an ok sector but until the cost of money comes down, it's not going to be what we hoped.
I shifted my attention to Private Credit and asked Jonathan Simmons what he sees there.
Jonathan replied:
The private credit strategy, if I look back at the last few years, and we already talked about infrastructure and its contribution, private credit has to be the other one. Very strong returns from that asset class, we've been moving capital into it consistently. It's wheels on a treadmill with private credit because most of these are 5-year deals so the team is very busy with the underwriting. We are so pleased with the risk profile we've seen. A year ago, people asked me a lot of questions about credit quality, bu tit's holding up, the discipline is strong, the returns are very good for our pension plan so it's an asset class to like.
I ended by asking Jonathan and Blake what's keeping them up at night, what are they worried about the most in this uncertain environment.
Jonathan chimed in first:
I crave for stability. It makes it much easier for decision makers to plan for the future, whether that be taking up more space in one of our buildings, or contracting one of our private equity businesses or getting a new project off the ground that we can invest in from an infrastructure perspective. When that stability comes back to the world, investors will have a much more enjoyable time. And it's been very choppy so that's what I look forward to the most.
Blake then added this:
I've always said, I don't need a competitive advantage, I need a level playing field and please don't break my jaw. And if I can invest in those environments, history has proven OMERS can do that, and my career suggests that's an environment I can excel in.
Because we share more with you than anyone, right now what keeps me up at night is our best friend, our biggest trading partner, our most important strategic alliance, the United States of America, we have deep friendships on both sides of the border. America needs Canada, Canada needs America and we are at a moment in history where that frayed relationship is as sad as it is destructive.
I think it can be fixed, I think it's going to require deep personal investments by our leaders spending time with their leaders because bees stick to honey.
It was very difficult to do that until the new government was elected, I think they have a really good shot at it and I think it's really important.
I don't know if it can be normalized but once we get the terms of engagement finalized, including USMCA over the finish line -- which by the way 93% of the trade of this country is captured by USMCA -- once we get over the finish line, and we remind each other that it's critical for all three parties in that document, it's going to be a difficult time emotionally and financially and economically.
That's what I worry about, how we can fix that relationship or at least improve it, how we get USMCA behind us and how we can work as a unified trading block in in North America to fortify ourselves against whoever the foe may be and make all three nations better because we are better together.
So those are the things I think about, I think it's an important time in history, and as I said we at OMERS want to be part of the solution by investing in this country if we can a little more and by helping build cross border relations for the best interest of our members and best interests of Canada.
OMERS is doing its part to help all levels of governments in Canada succeed.
Once again, I thank Blake and Jonathan for another great discussion, I really appreciate their time and insights.
Below, watch Bake Hutcheson at the Canadian Club Toronto discussing his views on leading and investing during these challenging times (April 16, 2025).
Last but not least. I want to sincerely wish Jonathan's daughter Jessica who is
fighting cancer for a second time a speedy and full recovery (read
Jonathan's post here).
We are all rooting for you Jessica, stay positive and if you need a little inspiration, watch Isabella Strahan's documentary, Life Interrupted, I highly recommend you do so.
Click pic... add to cart... enjoy Multitool! Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.
Chinese researcher Han Chengxuan. Sanilac County Sheriff’s Office
Symbols for male and female in Western Australia on Aug. 15, 2025. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times
Nio's top-of-the-line EP9 will cost you more than a million dollars. It owns the fastest EV lap time at Nurburgring -- 
Dr. Robert Malone speaks during a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta on June 25, 2025. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images
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