Alberta’s public pension manager has laid off 19 employees and cut their positions, including the role of running its diversity, equity and inclusion program.
A spokesperson for the Alberta Investment Management Corp. said in an email Tuesday that despite the job cuts, the company remains committed to an equitable and inclusive workplace.
“All AIMCo colleagues will continue to share the responsibility and accountability for ensuring AIMCo remains diverse, inclusive, innovative and motivating, in keeping with our corporate objectives and core values,” Carolyn Quick said.
It wasn’t clear if the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion program was dissolved. Quick didn’t answer questions about what other specific jobs were eliminated and in which locations, but she said the 19 positions were in non-investment roles.
The company’s board of directors and chief executive officer were fired in November by Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner, who appointed former prime minister Stephen Harper as board chair and named Alberta’s top bureaucrat, Ray Gilmour, as interim CEO.
Also fired in November was the company’s chief people, culture and engagement officer, Krista Pell.
Horner said at the time that AIMCo’s rising costs, including its number of employees, were unacceptable when compared with its annual investment performance.
AIMCo is responsible for investing over $110 billion in public sector pension plans representing thousands of Albertans, including teachers, police officers and municipal workers.
The company’s overall assets total more than $160 billion, and it has about 600 employees spread across offices in Canada, the United States, Europe and Singapore.
Cutting its diversity, equity and inclusion program facilitator comes as a number of high-profile institutions in Alberta and abroad have done the same.
At the beginning of the year, University of Alberta president Bill Flanagan announced the school was rebranding its diversity, equity and inclusion program to one for “access, community and belonging.”
Critics called the rebrand symbolic, with Flanagan saying the change wouldn’t lead to a dramatic shift in university policy.
Flanagan also said the decision wasn’t the result of rhetoric coming from the United States and President Donald Trump.
Following his election victory in November, Trump promised to crack down on diversity initiatives, calling them discriminatory.
On his first day in office last week, he signed an executive order directing all federal agencies to immediately end diversity programs and policies.
Several major companies have also put an end to their diversity initiatives, including Walmart and McDonald’s.
Opposition NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman said she’s disappointed with AIMCo’s decision to cut the lead role for its diversity, equity and inclusion program.
“I have a lot of young people in my life who look to their government, to the decision-makers, to create a world that’s better than the one that we inherited from the generation before us,” Hoffman said.
“And it feels like this is a move in the wrong direction.”
In a statement Tuesday, Horner said AIMCo’s mandate is to earn the highest returns at the lowest cost.
“And though they manage their operations independently, we support them in making decisions that reduce their operating expenses,” he said.