Pension and benefits briefs (Feb. 10, 2002)

CPP goes shopping, buys a few malls

Ottawa
— The Canada Pension Plan has stepped into the world of real estate, joining forces with a private real estate company to buy five shopping centres in Ontario from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board.

CPP and Ossington Inc. will pay $300 million for malls in Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Hamilton. CPP is kicking in $200 million of the purchase price. This is the first real estate purchase by the CPP’s Investment Board, which had in the past limited its real estate investments to holding shares in property companies or income trusts. By 2012 the CPP plans to invest as much as $8 billion in real estate and infrastructure. The board is hoping for a return of 4.5 per cent a year above inflation from its new real estate portfolio.

Canada a leader in maternity leave

Toronto
— Canada’s maternity leave, at 50 weeks, is among the longest in the world but falls far short of Sweden’s leading 96 weeks. Denmark, Italy, Finland and the U.K. also have generous provisions where women are entitled to up to 50, 47, 44 and 40 weeks’ leave respectively, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Asian countries offer the least number of weeks’ statutory maternity leave. Women in Singapore and Taiwan are entitled to eight weeks while those in Hong Kong get 10.

Mututal funds losing money

Toronto
— More than two-thirds of the mutual fund categories in Canada lost money in 2002 with all but 11 of 35 categories finishing the year in the red, according to a report by Globefund.com. Nine of those 11 categories that made money were bond and fixed-income funds, which usually thrive in tough times.

eBay offers health insurance

San Jose, Calif.
— Internet auction site eBay is making health insurance available to individuals who buy and sell goods full time over the company’s Web site. Medical, catastrophic care, dental and other insurance programs will be available to the more than 30,000 people who are “power sellers,” eBay’s most active merchants. eBay estimates between 130,000 and 150,000 people make their living from selling on the site.

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