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At Synod last spring (May 11 and 12) a motion was debated and passed to begin the process of removing investments in Kinder Morgan and Enbridge from our investment portfolio.
 
Motion #2
That this Synod:
a. confesses its complicity in economic systems which exploit the natural creation as
a source of wealth, and acknowledges our unhealthy dependence upon nonrenewable forms of energy; and,
b. declares its opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project and requests the Bishop to convey its support to the signatories of the Save the Fraser Declaration, who have declared that they will not permit the pipeline to cross their
traditional territories. and,
c. asks the Administration & Finance Committee to explore the exclusion of all Enbridge and Kinder Morgan stock from our Diocesan investment portfolio.
 
The Diocese‘s investment in the Consolidated Trust Fund (CTF), managed by Philips, Hager & North (PHN), does not include any equity or debt in Kinder Morgan, a firm proposing to increase its pipeline to Vancouver and to ship dramatically increased volumes of petroleum products from the Port of Vancouver.
The CTF has held equity in Enbridge through the mutual fund administered by PHN. Of the 33.74 million dollars we have in the CTF, 30% was invested in Canadian equities, in accordance with our guidelines that are reviewed by A&F from time to time. Within the Canadian equities fund, Enbridge accounted for 2.28% of that part of the portfolio, or about $230,000. The PHN Community Bond Fund also held Enbridge bonds - 11% of a $16M portfolio or $1,760,000. Thus Enbridge represented 5.89% of our total CTF holdings.
Our investments are made and held in what might be described as industrial sized pooled funds where stocks and bonds are selected and monitored jointly for us and other clients by PHN. Our investments are made in what is called the PHN Community Ventures Funds. In order to be a qualified/acceptable investment, it must be approved by and included in the Jantzi Social Index which is a socially screened, market capitalization-weighted common stock index that passes a set of broadly based environmental, social, and governance rating criteria.
On Monday, September 17, we were advised by PHN that the Jantzi index had removed Enbridge from its selected portfolio, and later that day PHN advised us that all holdings in Enbridge has been sold. The diocese’s Consolidated Trust Funds no longer has any holding in Enbridge.

For more information please contact Rob Dickson, Business Administrator at Synod office.
 
Image: Diocesan Treasurer, Ian Robertson in his role as Bishop's Warden of St. John's (Shaughnessy).