Saturday, February 27, 2021

Machin out at CPPIB after overseas COVID vaccine controversy

  

CPPIB chief's vaccine trip vexes Trudeau government

Kait Bolongaro and Paula Sambo, Bloomberg News
Feb 25, 2021

Justin Trudeau’s government criticized the head of Canada’s national pension fund for getting a COVID-19 vaccine in the Middle East as the northern nation struggles to ramp up its domestic immunization campaign.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Chief Executive Officer Mark Machin traveled to the United Arab Emirates to receive a first dose of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE shot, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

“While the CPPIB is an independent organization, this is very troubling,” Katherine Cuplinskas, a spokesperson for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, said by email. “The federal government has been clear with Canadians that now is not the time to travel abroad.”

The finance department was unaware of Machin’s trip, Cuplinskas said, adding further questions should be raised with CPPIB.

Spokespeople for the Toronto-based fund, which has $475.7 billion (US$377.1 billion) in assets under management, didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment Thursday evening.


News of Machin’s trip abroad comes amid criticism over the pace of Canada’s vaccine rollout, which is slowest among Group of Seven countries except Japan. Despite securing more doses per capita than any other nation, Canadian public health authorities have given shots to just 4.5 per cent of the population, compared to 29 per cent in the U.K. and 20.6 per cent in the U.S., according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.

With vaccine deliveries now accelerating after delays caused in part by export controls in the European Union and the U.S. decision to devote all of its doses to its own citizens, Trudeau maintains that every Canadian will be inoculated by the end of September.

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