OMERS, officially the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is a pension fund created by statute in 1962 to handle the retirement benefits of local government employees in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has become one of the largest institutional investors in Canada.[1] About 70% of the plan is funded by investments, and 30% by pension contributions. As of December 2010[update], OMERS has about 53.3 billion Canadian dollars worth of net investment assets.[2] The system now includes firefighters, police, emergency services staff, Children's Aid Society workers, school staff other than teachers, and transit and hydro workers.[1]
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OMERS is regulated by the "Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Act, 2006" (S.O. 2006, chapter 2), an Ontario provincial law which superseded the older "Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System Act".
Under the 2006 law, OMERS is actually composed of two corporations:
OMERS has four major investment divisions:[2]
The OMERS top investment assets as of December 31, 2007, were:
| Investment | Amount (CAD) |
|---|---|
| Province of Ontario and provincial bonds | $2,725,000,000 |
| Government of Canada bonds | $3,354,000,000 |
| Real Return Bonds | $2,039,000,000 |
| Private debt | $619,000,000 |
| Corporate bonds | $582,000,000 |
| Cash and short term deposits | $11,374,000,000 |
| Mortgages | $814,000,000 |
OMERS' investment strategy since 2003 has been to increase its investment in infrastructure from to 15% the former 7.9%.[4]
Outline of assets:[5]
Borealis also owns 16 school buildings, leased to the Province of Nova Scotia, and 12 nursing home buildings, leased to the Province of Ontario.[5][9]
Among the private companies OCP owns are Marketwire (purchased at the end of 2006)[13] and Oxford Properties (purchased at the beginning of 2003).
OMERS and Apax Partners (a fund OMERS invests in) jointly own Cengage Learning, a large education resource company formerly known as Thomson Learning before OMERS and Apax Partners bought it on May 11, 2007. Some parts of Thomson Learning had been sold off to other groups before this sale. Among Cengage's major brands are Gale (formerly Thomson Gale) and Nelson Education (Nelson Canada, not Nelson USA Education).
Outline of assets:[14]