Open Letter to the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan: phase out fossil fuel investments

A healthcare pension should be healthy. Fossil fuel investments are not.

The burning of fossil fuels is driving the climate crisis – and the climate crisis is a health crisis: extreme heat, intensifying wildfires, poor air quality, mental health impacts and more. So why does the pension fund for Ontario healthcare workers, HOOPP, continue to hold shares in fossil fuel companies?

We are all being impacted by the climate crisis. It makes no sense that HOOPP still holds $2 billion in shares in risky fossil fuel companies – investing HOOPP members' retirement savings in the very companies that are fueling this crisis. HOOPP must phase out its fossil fuel investments.

More info:

See HOOPP's holdings in shares in fossil fuel companies:
June 30, 2023
September 30, 2023

Read more about the background for this open letter here: Ontario health workers get a closer look at HOOPP’s $1.6 billion in oil and gas companies.

Reference 1: "The cost of wind and solar power is already cheaper than gas-fired electricity in Alberta and Ontario."
See: A Renewables Powerhouse: New research finds that wind and solar power with battery storage is set to produce cheaper electricity than natural gas in Alberta and Ontario

Reference 2: "And the war in Ukraine has actually sped up the transition to renewables."
See: War in Ukraine Likely to Speed, Not Slow, Shift to Clean Energy, I.E.A. Says and Ukraine war to accelerate shift to clean energy, BP says

Reference 3: Other pension funds have phased out oil investments without negative impacts on the fund’s finances, calling the returns “easy to replace”.
See: Europe's Biggest Pension Fund Sells €10 Billion in Fossil Fuels

Ontario Health Care Workers - Sign the Open Letter!

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Attn: Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Board of Trustees and Executive Team

A healthcare pension should be healthy. Fossil fuel investments are not.

Last year we lived through the hottest year on record, and this year is on track to be even hotter. As long as we continue to burn coal, oil and gas, we’ll keep experiencing worsening wildfires, heatwaves and floods.

As Ontario healthcare sector workers, we’re alert to the impacts these disasters have on the physical and mental health of the patients and communities we serve. That’s why we’re calling on our pension fund to immediately stop making any new investments in coal, oil, gas or pipelines, and to set a timeline to phase out investments in fossil fuels.

HOOPP’s investments in fossil fuels are at odds with our professions and our service to the public. We advise clients on how to handle medications that make them more vulnerable to extreme heat. We treat children with asthma aggravated by fossil fuel pollution and the smoke that comes with longer, more intense fire seasons. We support unhoused individuals who have had their belongings destroyed in floods. We counsel young people who are struggling with their mental health out of despair about the climate and their futures. 

Betting on the fossil fuel sector might have made sense a generation ago. But today there is scientific consensus that stopping the worst impacts of climate change requires an immediate end to fossil fuel expansion and a rapid phase-out of existing production. 

It’s clear that fossil fuel profits have a non-negotiable expiry date. The cost of wind and solar power is already cheaper than gas-fired electricity in Ontario. [1] The war in Ukraine has actually sped up the transition to renewables. [2] And other pension funds have phased out oil investments without negative impacts on the fund’s finances, calling the returns “easy to replace”. [3] 

Our pension fund must look elsewhere for lower risk, profitable investments that don’t harm the planet.

A healthcare pension needs to be healthy. That can’t include investing in the oil, gas, coal and pipeline companies that are fueling the greatest health threat we face. We know that our pension fund wants to do what’s good for the plan and the planet. But investing in fossil fuels isn’t it.

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