The Canadian Impact Investing Working Group issues calls for increasing impact investing with 18 recommendations

MONTREAL, May 13, 2024 /CNW/ – Some of the country’s leading impact investors working as the Canadian Impact Investing Working Group are publishing today a report “Scaling Impact Investing in Canada Through Mobilizing Asset Owners” to spur growth of the sector. The comprehensive report describes the challenges and barriers to impact investing in Canada and proposes a roadmap consisting of 18 recommendations for investors, asset managers and beneficiaries. There is something for everyone in this report, no matter where they are in their impact journey.

Based on an analysis of the Canadian finance and investment market and numerous interviews, the 18 recommendations for concrete action are framed around five key pillars:

1. Mainstream: Clarify principles to broaden support, commitment, and mobilization among investors and beyond

2. Develop products: Increase and diversify opportunities for impact investing in Canada.

3. Experiment: Explore impact investing in concrete terms, and encourage decision-makers and investors to learn, train and act

4. Accelerate Capacity Building: Accelerate the pooling of knowledge, expertise and cooperation

5. Advocate: Encourage the implementation of policies favoring impact investing

Members of the Canadian Impact Investing Working Group commented on the study and called for action:

“The positive transformation of the economy will be the result of the mobilization of our entire society. If we want to change finance and finance change, it starts with the intentions and the values held by investors and beneficiaries, whether they are pension funds, private investors, insurers or even individuals who choose where to invest their money. We are instruments of the collective power of savings. We must embrace that power and use it. For Fondaction, that means getting actively involved in initiatives that enable us all to act together.”

– Stéphan Morency, Executive Vice-President, Strategic Initiatives, Fondaction

“The members of the Canadian Impact Investing Working Group are committed to using capital to bring systemic changes to our economy through impact investing. The report confirms that investors are generating market rate returns alongside positive impact. We’re calling on asset owners, managers, and values-driven organizations to contribute to the movement to deploy capital that accelerates social equity and respects the limits of the planet. We have embraced this at Rally Assets and believe each of us have a part to play in propelling the change. The solutions are clear and now is the time to act.”

–       Upkar Arora, CEO, Rally Assets & Managing Partner, Realize Capital Partners

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About the report

Carried out by Quinn+Partners, the report “Scaling Impact Investing in Canada Through Mobilizing Asset Owners” identifies five pillars that accelerate the mobilization of capital in favor of impact investing – from the necessary mobilization of leaders in the financial sector to a better understanding of the principles and positive impact of investments in the transformation towards a sustainable economy. Based on this clear and objective analysis of the environment, the document presents a series of 18 recommendations, grouped around five major themes, to be deployed in the short and long term, affecting all stakeholders linked to the investment chain.

The study is available here.

About the Canadian Impact Investing Working Group

The Canadian Impact Investing Working Group consists of 11 like-minded investors from across the country who have come together, under the leadership of Fondaction, to create a space to exchange ideas between impact investors in Canada, better structure the impact investing ecosystem, encourage the development of best practices in impact investing and increase the number of participants and capital flows to impact investments.

Like the growing number of Impact Investors around the world, these organizations are increasingly looking to use their capital to achieve positive social and environmental outcomes, in addition to financial returns.  They have committed time, effort, and capital to advancing the state of impact investing in Canada.

More about the Group here.

Members of the Canadian Impact Investing Working Group:

• Upkar Arora, CEO, Rally Assets, & Managing Partner, Realize Capital Partners Upkar Arora, CEO, Rally Assets

• Roger Beauchemin, President and CEO, and Réjean Nguyen, Director, Impact Investing and ESG Integration, Addenda Capital

• Patrice Boucher, Vice-President, Investments, Fondation Lucie et Angré Chagnon

• Delia Cristea, Partner and General Counsel, and Sophie Cousineau, Director, Sustainability, Power Sustainable

• Heather Conradi, Director, Impact Investing, Vancity

• Serge LeVert-Chiasson, Managing Partner and COO, and Patrick Hergt, Partner, Head of business development, Sarona Asset Management

• Stéphan Morency, Executive Vice-President, Strategic Initiatives, Fondaction

• Leah Nguyen, Chief Investment Officer, InBC Investment Corp.

• Edmund Piro, Chief Investment Officer, McConnell Foundation

• Natacha Zenie, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Office, Eclipx Family Office

SOURCE Fondaction

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