BCI Sees Progress and Room for Improvement on Company Engagement

The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. voted on more than 30,000 agenda items at nearly 2,500 public company shareholder meetings in fiscal 2023, supporting more than half of all proposals and voting against management more than one-quarter of the time, according to the pension fund’s inaugural stewardship report.

The C$250.4 billion (US$181.4 billion) pension fund announced it also directly engaged with 134 public and private companies during the fiscal year that ended March 31 and met its objective 16% of the time. The pension categorized its levels of engagement success into four classifications: “objective achieved,” “positive momentum,” “neutral,” and “lagging.” It defined “positive momentum” as situations in which companies have responded to the pension fund’s outreach, some of its objectives have been met and “some level of constructive engagement has occurred.”

“Neutral” engagement with companies indicates the companies have either not yet responded to the pension fund’s requests or have met with BCI with no indication of progress related to disclosure or performance. “Lagging” companies are those that have declined the pension fund’s outreach and may show a decline in either disclosure or performance.

BCI categorized 42% of its engagements in fiscal 2023 as “positive momentum,” 40% as “neutral” and 2% as lagging, in addition to the 16% of the engagements where its objectives were achieved.

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“While there is significant work ahead, the progress we are seeing from companies and policymakers alike reinforces our belief that multifaceted engagement can drive real-world outcomes,” BCI’s global head of ESG, Jennifer Coulson, said in a statement.

Regarding climate disclosure, BCI stated it voted against more than 100 directors for insufficient climate disclosure, while supporting about two-thirds of climate-related shareholder proposals. Those proposals included seeking additional emissions data from companies in high-emitting sectors, as well as calling on oil and gas firms to include climate risk assessments in their audited financial statements.

The stewardship report highlighted progress on increasing the representation of women on Canadian corporate boards, noting that there has been a 301% increase in average female board representation on the TSX Composite Index to 36.6% in 2023 from 9.1% in 2011. It also noted a 425% jump in the number of companies providing full disclosure under Sustainability Accounting Standards Board standards since 2020.

“BCI’s inaugural stewardship report builds on more than two decades of responsible investing,” Gordon Fyfe, BCI’s CEO and CIO, said in a statement. “Active ownership is critical to delivering the returns our clients depend on, both through the management of risks associated with responsible investing and by capturing sustainability-related opportunities.”