AIMCo seeks new CIO amid push to expand Calgary office
Alberta Investment Management Corp. is hunting for a new chief investment officer as it carries out an overhaul that began last year when the provincial government fired the board and its top executive.
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The new CIO would be based in Calgary, the largest city in Alberta and the home of Canada's major oil and gas companies. Edmonton-based Aimco is considering both internal and external candidates, according to people familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.
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Four people held the CIO title at Aimco in less than four years. The most recent, Marlene Puffer, departed in September.
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Aimco, which manages about $180 billion of pension capital and other money for the Canadian province, wants to increase its staff in Calgary to boost the city's financial sector. Newly appointed Chief Legal Officer John Walsh works out of the Calgary office, which has about 70 of Aimco's 680 employees.
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'The size of the team in Calgary has grown and we're looking for space to accommodate them,' Aimco spokesperson Carolyn Quick said.
The firm is also changing its remote-work policy, requiring employees to work from the office three times a week starting in January, the people said.
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Aimco's restructuring was set in motion on Nov. 7, when Alberta's finance minister sacked the board, Chief Executive Officer Evan Siddall and three other executives, saying they had allowed expenses to soar to unacceptable levels. Ray Gilmour was named interim CEO and Stephen Harper, the former Canadian prime minister, was installed as chair.
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Since then, the money manager's global expansion, championed by Siddall, has reversed. It shuttered its offices in New York and Singapore and parted ways with David Scudellari, its global head of private assets, and Kevin Bong, the executive who ran the Singapore office.
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Last month, Aimco laid off around a dozen employees and decided to freeze around 25 vacant roles, according to one of the people. Earlier this year, Aimco eliminated 19 jobs, including the role responsible for the diversity, equity and inclusion program.
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Aimco produced a 12.6% return last year in its balanced fund, missing its benchmark of 13.4%. Its total fund return was 12.3%. But the fund's results exceeded those of some peers in the so-called Maple Eight, such as Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which last year earned 8.3% and 9.4%, respectively.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
AI-powered personal finance is here: for better and for worse
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A 2024 study by MIT's Laboratory for Financial Engineering suggests that AI already shows potential in providing good financial advice. Yet it still has challenges ensuring the advice is based on correct information. Overall, the research points to how, with the right data and protective guardrails, generative AI could be pretty good at providing financial advice. Just don't blindly trust it. That said, blind trust in finance is a bad idea with human experts too. By now, anyone who has used the AI tools — Google's Gemini, Microsoft's CoPilot, Perplexity, among many others — understands what a 'hallucination' is. These fabricated errors produced from generative AI models range from rates of less than one per cent to close to 30 per cent, depending on the search engine, according to one study from early August. When it comes to your money, a hallucination could prove costly. 'A lot of people focus on the pros and forget about the cons,' says Jessica Moorhouse, financial counsellor and bestselling author of Everything but money: The Hidden Barriers Between You and Financial Freedom in Toronto. The stakes are higher with finances, more complicated and nuanced than, by comparison, meal planning, she adds. 'It's unlikely that ChatGPT is going to give you a recipe that is super unhealthy, but when it comes to using AI for money management advice, you have to be cautious.' That said, a lot of Canadians are using generative AI searches to provide them with money know-how. One BMO study from last year found that a third of respondents use it for their finances, though mostly for financial literacy, and the younger you are, the more likely you're going to use it. AI can be a truly valuable personal finance tool if you remember its limitations, says Christi Posner, a Winnipeg-based fintech strategist helping financial companies develop AI tools for personal finance. 'The beauty of gen-AI is that you can talk to it like you text a friend, and it turns complex topics into something you can understand fast,' she says, noting the algorithmically driven software 'learns' from potentially hundreds of millions of documents on a variety of subjects that it can access. It excels at building budgets, discovering savings and investing strategies, while explaining complex financial concepts in plain language. It can even tell you, based on your savings, age and forecast retirement date, whether you're on track to reach your goal. 'AI makes money choices easier,' says the former debt counsellor, who understands well the impact of emotionally driven poor choices. 'From comparing mortgage options to meal planning, AI can simplify the hardest parts of money management.' That includes helping individuals find the best deals on travel, which another recent study found. The research by Adyen, a payment services provider, found a third of respondents are using it to help with travel decisions. 'We found it's used mostly to build a personalized travel itinerary,' says Sander Meijers, Canada country manager at Adyen in Toronto. He's used it himself when on vacation for finding suitable activities for his kids. 'What might take me a couple of hours to plan, maybe, takes seconds.' Still, the study found people still prefer the human touch — like getting one-the-ground advice from a hotel concierge. Similarly, it's difficult to replace the human mind and its ability for nuance required for personalized financial advice because of the emotions that often factor into them. 'It's tempting to let AI figure it out for you, but financial planning has emotional and behavioural components that AI can't handle,' Posner says. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. It can draft a budget, but it can't make you stick to it. It can point to places where you can cut expenses, but it does not know which ones bring joy to your family, Posner adds. But it does make learning about money more approachable. 'People's financial lives are deeply personal, and talking about money can be scary,' she says. 'AI takes away the fear and stigma about money and debt, and provides a non-judgmental starting point.' Joel Schlesinger is a Winnipeg-based freelance journalist joelschles@
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Were you planning to fly Air Canada? What you need to know about the strike
Air Canada flights are cancelled after thousands of flight attendants began a strike early Saturday morning. The company says the work stoppage means all Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights would be cancelled amid the work stoppage. Around 130,000 customers will be affected each day that the strike continues. For summer travellers worried about what this means for their plans, here's what you need to know. Has a strike started? Yes. More than 10,000 flight attendants working for Air Canada have walked off the job. The Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees said the two sides were unable to reach a deal before the 12:58 a.m. ET deadline on Saturday. Will all Air Canada flights be cancelled? The work stoppage affects Air Canada's main operations and Air Canada Rouge. Air Canada began a gradual suspension of flights in advance of the strike deadline to allow an orderly shutdown leading up to Saturday. 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Air Canada said its latest offer included 38 per cent total compensation increases over four years, including 25 per cent in the first year. It said that proposal also addressed the issue of ground pay, improved pensions and benefits, increased crew rest and other enhancements to work-life balance. The airline said that offer would make its flight attendants the best compensated in Canada. But it said the union submitted a counter-offer 'seeking exorbitant increases beyond those presented in earlier submissions.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2025. Companies in this story: (TSX:AC)
Cision Canada
3 hours ago
- Cision Canada
Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge Flights Suspended due to a Strike By CUPE Flight Attendants
Air Canada Jazz and PAL Airlines flights continue to operate as usual MONTRÉAL, Aug. 16, 2025 /CNW/ - Air Canada today said that it has suspended all operations of Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge due to a strike by its 10,000 flight attendants represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). The strike took effect at 12:58 am Eastern Time on August 16, 2025. Flights by Air Canada Express, which are operated by third-party airlines, are not affected. CUPE served Air Canada the statutory 72-hour strike notice on August 13, 2025. The airline has since been gradually reducing its schedule of approximately 700 daily flights to manage the labour disruption created by CUPE's strike notice, while working diligently to reach a new, negotiated collective agreement and avoid further labour disruption. Approximately 130,000 customers will be impacted each day that the strike continues. Air Canada is strongly advising affected customers not to go to the airport unless they have a confirmed ticket on an airline other than Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge. Air Canada will notify customers with imminent travel of additional cancelled flights and their options. For those customers due to travel soon whose flights are not yet cancelled, Air Canada has put in place a goodwill policy to allow them to rebook their travel or obtain a credit for future travel. For more information customers should visit Air Canada deeply regrets the effect the strike is having on customers. About Air Canada Air Canada is Canada's largest airline, the country's flag carrier and a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network. Air Canada provides scheduled service directly to more than 180 airports in Canada, the United States and Internationally on six continents. It holds a Four-Star ranking from Skytrax. Air Canada's Aeroplan program is Canada's premier travel loyalty program, where members can earn or redeem points on the world's largest airline partner network of 45 airlines, plus through an extensive range of merchandise, hotel and car rental partners. Through Air Canada Vacations, it offers more travel choices than any other Canadian tour operator to hundreds of destinations worldwide, with a wide selection of hotels, flights, cruises, day tours, and car rentals. Its freight division, Air Canada Cargo, provides air freight lift and connectivity to hundreds of destinations across six continents using Air Canada's passenger and freighter aircraft. Air Canada's climate-related ambition includes a long-term aspirational goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. For additional information, please see Air Canada's TCFD disclosure. Air Canada shares are publicly traded on the TSX in Canada and the OTCQX in the US. Sign up for Air Canada news: Media Resources: Photos Videos B-Roll Articles SOURCE Air Canada
