- Hello and welcome, everyone,
to the Annual General Meeting
for Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
My name is Claire Holland.
I'm a managing director at Teachers'
and I'm very pleased on behalf of my colleagues
to have the opportunity to welcome you all here today.
We always value the opportunity
to engage with our members at this forum each year
and appreciate everyone joining both here in-person
and those who are joining virtually through the webcast.
This meeting is also being recorded
and will be available on our website in the coming weeks.
For those in the room,
headsets are available for simultaneous translation
and that was at the registration table in the foyer.
So, if you do need those, they are available to you.
As well, those joining virtually can enable closed captions
or also choose to switch
between English and French as preferred.
In terms of our agenda,
we will have three presentations to share with you today.
Our board chair, Steve McGirr,
will provide his perspective
on areas of progress in 2023
and also where the board has been focusing their attention.
Jo Taylor, our president and CEO,
will talk about our financial performance,
some strategic leadership changes
that have been made since the last AGM
and outlook for the rest of the year and beyond.
And finally, Charley Butler, our chief pension officer,
will provide an update
on where we've spending time serving you, our members.
Following these, we will have a Q&A session
as we have in prior years.
This will include questions submitted prior to today,
as well as here in the room and online for the webcast.
And I'll cover the format for that Q&A just beforehand.
Before we move to the formal remarks,
I'm very pleased to introduce a special guest
who will lead us in acknowledging the traditional territory
on which we gather today.
We've invited a remarkable grade five
Toronto District School Board student,
also the daughter of one of our colleagues,
to deliver our land acknowledgement.
So, please join me in welcoming Cecilia Maj.
(attendees clapping)
- On behalf of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan,
I wish to acknowledge this land
on which we are meeting today
for the Annual General Meeting,
as well as the land
on which the Global Headquarters operates.
For thousands of years,
that has been the traditional territory of many nations,
including the Mississaugas of the Credit,
the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa,
the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples.
Today, this meeting places still the home
to many indigenous people from across Turtle Islands.
We are grateful to have the opportunity to meet
and work on this land.
As a student of the TDSB,
I wish to acknowledge we respect the treaties
that were made on these territories,
we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past,
and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership
with the indigenous communities
in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.
(attendees clapping)
- Okay. Great job.
(attendees clapping)
Thank you to Cecilia.
Most adults don't like to speak in public,
so I think very good job and an important topic.
I'll now turn to our board chair,
Steve McGirr, to provide his remarks.
- Well, thank you for that introduction, Claire.
I don't know how I follow Cecilia. She did such a great job.
Maybe ask her up later to answer some of your questions.
(attendees laughing)
So, good evening, everyone.
And I'd like to add to Claire's warm welcome to all of you
that are joining us here in the room today
and those who are joining us virtually.
And I know a number of people
had some challenges getting up in the elevator,
so I'm glad everyone made it into the room.
Thank you for persevering. My name is Steve McGirr.
I'm honored to be here today as the chair of the board
of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
And it's a real pleasure
to convene our Annual General Meeting.
So, before I begin my remarks on the year past,
I'd also like to thank all of you
for your continued commitment to the teaching profession
and for your dedication to furthering the education
of the children in this province.
So, thank you.
It was really nice
to have a student join us this evening
to deliver the land acknowledgement.
And Cecilia did a fantastic job.
As stewards of the plan,
we're committed to serving our members and our plan sponsors
and to delivering on the promise
of providing educators like you with a pension.
And that promise endures even in times
of uncertainty and change.
This past year,
global investors navigated a very challenging landscape
marked by various adversities.
However, I'm pleased to announce
that despite those challenges,
our portfolio continues to demonstrate resilience.
We delivered positive results for the year.
The plan had a 1.9% total fund net return.
Assets grew to $247.5 billion at the year end.
And furthermore, I'm happy to report
that our plan maintains its fully funded status
for the 11th consecutive year.
And we have a very healthy preliminary funding surplus
of $19.1 billion.
Now, this robust funding surplus
ensures the stability of contributions for you
and benefits for our valued members
over the next few years.
But at the same time, we aim for higher returns.
We are a mature pension plan.
More dollars are paid out of this plan
every year in pensions than are received in contributions
from members and from the province.
Of the $247.5 billion in assets,
I'm gonna say that over and over again.
I love that.
Of the 247.5 billion assets in the plan,
about 21% came in equal contributions
from the employer and from members.
79% has been made in investment returns.
And investment returns
since inception of the plan have been 9.3%.
So, solid investment performance
is absolutely critical to meeting the pension promise.
Jo will provide some additional context on the performance
and the go forward investment outlook
of the plan shortly when he comes up here.
The top priority for this
is the service we provide to you, our members,
and for our member services team, which is led by Charley,
meeting and exceeding
your service expectations remains paramount.
We know you continue to value
and to use the digital channels
to find important pension information
and to communicate with us.
We've invested strategically in both human capital
and in technology to ensure seamless,
personalized, convenient, and omnichannel service delivery.
The primary performance indicator
for assessing how our members feel
about our service shows high satisfaction.
Now, you'll hear more from Charley in just a few minutes.
Since inception of the plan in 1990, a cornerstone principle
has been a strong, professional, and independent board.
Solid governance leads to decisions in the best interests
of the plan beneficiaries and the plan sponsors,
or in other words, all of you.
Your board is collaborative,
but also challenges and questions management
to ensure effective decision making
and high performance in all of our endeavors.
And as you know,
your plan is a very complex international enterprise.
One meeting last year of the board
was held in our London office
and we focused on our European investments.
I'd like to take a moment to extend my appreciation
to our sponsors for the hard work
that they put into identifying
and nominating highly qualified candidates to our board.
We bid farewell last year to Lise Fournel
and Kathleen O'Neill, both of whom from the board
in 2023 after serving many years of service.
And I'd like to thank both Lise
and Kathleen for their many contributions
to the board and to your plan.
We also welcomed our two newest board members,
Martine Irman and Tom Wellner.
Martine and Tom bring a wealth of experience
garnered from decades
of executive level leadership in large organizations.
They enrich the board's expertise
and reinforce our commitment
to board excellence and sustained success.
Martine brings over three decades
of expertise in financial services.
Tom has a rich global experience in biotech,
pharmaceuticals, and healthcare services.
Now, the full board is featured on the screen.
Many are here in the room, others are attending virtually.
And I'd like to ask all of my fellow board members
to please stand,
and thank you for what you do.
(attendees clapping)
The board will be at the reception following this session
and we all look forward to speaking with you.
So, before I pass it over to Jo and Charley,
I wanna share with you
that your pension is safe and secure.
We had a positive performance in 2023
and the plan is fully funded.
But we're laser-focused
on achieving our long-term target returns
to keep the plan fully funded well into the future.
We will continue to look for attractive opportunities
to invest in great companies
across all asset, classes, and regions.
And we'll also increase our focus
on creating value within our existing portfolio.
You can be completely confident in the team's ability
to continue to execute the plan's bold
and ambitious strategy
for the remainder of 2024 and beyond.
I believe that we have the right governance
and the right leadership to shepherd the plan successfully.
So, I thank you again for your continued faith
and for joining us today.
And I'll pass it over now to Jo who will share more
with you about the plan's performance in 2023.
Thank you very much.
Jo. (attendees clapping)
- Thank you, Steve.
It really is my pleasure to be with you here today
and to try my best to provide you with insights on the plan,
its performance, and also to answer your questions.
I was able to connect with some of you
before we join the room today,
and hopefully I can also talk to some of you
after the event as well.
So, today, I plan to cover three things.
So, firstly, look at our 2023 financial performance
and some of the progress
that we've made in advancing our strategy.
Also, there've been some recent changes
to our leadership team
and I thought I'd explain some of those
and how those are gonna help the plan going forward.
And finally, take a look at this year
and beyond in terms of what we're up to.
(object slams)
So, let me start with our performance in 2023.
As Steve said, we delivered a positive return
of $5.5 billion, about 1.9% net return.
And that return was essentially driven by a return
at our benchmark through our public equity and credit teams,
and also a positive return from our private equity team,
our private capital team,
albeit that was behind the benchmark set for it.
And we also found some headwinds in terms of losses
we incurred in our infrastructure real estate businesses,
as well as some negative currency translation.
So, whilst I would emphasize that our return
was more than enough to cover our net pension outflows,
as Steve mentioned a second ago,
I think it's also important that I reinforce to you
that this wasn't the returns
we wanted to make for you, our members.
In 2023, one of the reasons for that is we started the year
with a pretty negative outlook
on the world and macro economy.
And actually, that proved to be different
from what actually transpired, particularly in the US.
Our portfolio as a result was very cautiously constructed
to protect the plan
from the perceived downside risks that we saw.
And as such-
(attendee speaks vaguely)
- Sorry?
(attendee speaks vaguely)
- I'm not sure they should be advancing actually.
But as such,
our performance trail public markets by a wide margin.
So, the benchmark under performance
was driven by a number of issues.
So, back to the markets themselves,
there's a strong performance in listed equity markets,
particularly towards the end of 2023.
And those were particularly extreme in the technology sector
and in the S&P 500,
which is a key benchmark for many of our equity products.
Also, we had a relatively low exposure
to listed equities in the light of our view of the risks
and also our focus that we'd had to date on private assets.
And finally, we did make some corrective valuation measures
against our infrastructure and real estate portfolios
due to higher interest rates
and some adverse events with a few of our larger companies.
So, to say it again,
we are not satisfied with that performance.
We do aim to do better,
but I think I should emphasize
that it's important that as a pension plan
and a long-term business,
we actually assess risk taking
and performance in that context.
Now, investment strategy is intentionally designed
to deliver stable long-term returns.
And as Steve mentioned earlier,
when looking back, our performance has been good,
whether it's compared with our pension peers,
but also the lower levels of risks we've been taking
to generate the returns we've achieved.
So, just to restate those returns,
our 10-year annualized real return has been 7.6%
and also our return since inception, 9.3%.
Let me move on to where we see we are
in terms of investment activity.
So, the level of new investments
we've been making has slowed compared with previous years.
But that said, we do continue
to back high quality companies in Canada
and around the world
and we believe those companies
can still provide attractive returns
for the plan in the coming years.
I thought I'd give you a few examples
of some of those business that we backed in 2023.
So, they would include 7IM,
which is a wealth management business based in the UK
that excels in technology-driven investment
and wealth solutions.
Equally, we backed a business, Diamond Communications,
which is one of the largest privately held
US wireless communication infrastructure platforms.
And that is a sub-sector
that we know well from previous investments made
in wireless communications infrastructure
recently in New Zealand.
And finally, I'd highlight Westland Insurance,
which is a large independent insurance broker in Canada,
which was recently acquired by BroadStreet Partners,
one of our existing portfolio companies.
So, trying to bring (attendee coughing)
some of this to life,
I thought we might pick out one of our recent investments,
which is not only making better returns,
but also making a positive impact locally.
And the business we're gonna highlight in a second
with a video is Enwave,
which is involved in a number of power solutions
and heating solutions for businesses
in around Ontario and Toronto in particular.
So, maybe we could play that video.
(bright music)
- District Energy simply is taking a number of buildings
and combining them with underground infrastructure
to bring them heating and cooling.
- [Narrator] Cities consume more than 75%
of the world's energy,
much of it for heating and cooling.
District energy can help them
make more efficient use of local energy sources
and get closer to achieving their decarbonization goals.
- The biggest benefit of district energy is scale.
It's the ability to aggregate demand,
so you aggregate load across a whole bunch of buildings,
and then you can access different technologies
that you wouldn't be able
to otherwise access in your own building.
A simple example is deep lake water cooling.
We can't build deep lake water cooling for one building,
but we can for a hundred
in downtown Toronto, which is what we did.
- [Narrator] Toronto's Deep Lake Water Cooling system
is the largest of its kind,
displacing 55 megawatts annually
from the electricity grid.
The project's operator, Enwave, provides both heating
and cooling to about 150 buildings in Canada's largest city.
- In 2021, we were purchased
by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
and we're currently operating
in a number of locations across Canada.
- It was important to us
to invest in Enwave really for a few reasons.
We found that it's great that they're in our backyard
and frankly, they're a leader in Canada.
- [Narrator] Enwave's projects
include a geothermal energy system
that serves hundreds of homes in Markham, Ontario,
a project that converts municipal waste
to energy in Charlottetown Prince Edward Island,
and in Toronto, a massive thermal energy storage facility
that will be the first of its kind in Canada.
- From some of our customers, we've even heard
that they reduce not just electricity consumption
of their building, but also water use.
And in some cases, completely eliminate gas use.
- [Narrator] Even as it helps its customers
become more efficient,
Enwave is working to decarbonize its own operations.
That includes adding an innovative
low carbon heating facility
at the company's Pearl Street Energy Centre in Toronto.
- The effect of what we're doing at Pearl Street
will be to decarbonize the equivalent
of about 10 million square feet of commercial towers.
So, that's significant and if we can continue to scale
and replicate that, it's gonna be an amazing means
to be able to easily decarbonize the downtown core.
- With Enwave, not only do we have the opportunity
to make a great investment,
but we also have the opportunity to make a great impact.
And what I find with our own team,
they're excited about this,
because they realize not only
are they providing great returns to the teachers,
but they're also part of something that they believe in,
which is helping decarbonization.
(bright music)
- So...
(attendees clapping)
So, I hope you found that helpful bringing one
of our companies to life
for really innovative, impactful company
helping with the climate transition locally
and certainly helping a lot of consumers here in Toronto.
And that point of trying
to focus on making a positive impact in local communities
through our investments and operations
is one of the key issues, as well as how we give back.
It's very much one
of the three banks of our current strategy.
So, we want to do this, but also to emphasize,
we want to do this
while also making strong returns to pay pensions.
And the subject that Enwave's involve with climate change
is a really good case in point.
We believe that climate change is going to be one
of the most pressing issues of our time
and is also an immediate investment opportunity.
(attendee coughing)
A few years ago, we committed the plan
and our investment teams
to have net zero emissions intensity by 2050.
And to do that, we set some interim targets
to monitor our progress towards that goal.
And the good news is that we're making steady progress
with our portfolio carbon intensity emissions
down by 39% since we started this program in 2019.
And that's against our first interim target
of a reduction of 45% by 2025.
We've also grown the number of green assets
in our portfolio to around 34 billion at the end of 2023.
And we'll continue to explore some selective investments
in higher emitting sectors
of companies that we believe through our capital
and our expertise,
we can help accelerate their decarbonization.
Outside climate, we've also been focusing very strongly
on diversity, equity, and inclusion,
both in our business and also in our portfolio companies.
And finally, we've embedded a focus
on social and environmental impact on how we operate
and how we contribute communities across the plan.
Now, one of the other things I mentioned
at the start of my presentation
was since our last Annual General Meeting,
there have been several changes to our senior team,
and I thought I'd give an update on some of those.
In June of 2023,
Bruce Crane assumed the role of head of Asia
and he took over from Ben Chan who retired
after five years building our capabilities in that region.
In December, our chief investment officer,
Ziad Hindo, left the organization
after more than 20 years at the plan.
And with his departure, we took the time to reflect
on what would be the way to deal
with the growing requirements of the CIO role
and what would also position as well for the future.
And the outcome of those discussions
was to split the CIO role with Gillian Brown
and Steve McLennan taking over a role as co-CIOs.
So, Gillian will oversee our private
and public market investments,
while Stephen's gonna focus
on asset allocation choices, optimizing returns,
and overseeing our international network.
At the same time, we appointed Jonathan Hausman
to a new position as our chief strategy officer.
And Jonathan's job is to refresh the current strategy,
which was initially designed in 2021.
And also, that he will play a pivotal role
in leading cross-department approach
to delivering those key strategic objectives for the plan.
Now, when you make changes,
there are consequential adjustments to be made as well.
And as a result of those elevations,
there are three other senior roles that have been changed.
So, Bernard Grzinic
has become our new head of capital markets.
Steve Saldanha took over the total fund management role.
And Robert Sturgeon
is now leading the global investment strategy team.
And I raise all of those examples for a key reason,
which is to say we've been able
to fill all of those positions with in-house talent,
which also shows the bench strength
we have built up at Teachers', which I do believe
is gonna be a key advantage for us as we go forward.
One other change we've experienced recently
is in April of this year, where our chief financial officer,
Tim Deacon, took on another leadership role
at a major financial institution.
As a result of that, I've asked Mabel Wong,
who is here tonight,
to take over from Tim as our acting CFO.
And Mabel joined us in January, 2023
as a senior member of the finance team
and is well-positioned
to oversee all of our financial initiatives.
So, talking about change,
the other thing that we've changed within the business
is our approach to real estate.
And on a personal note, I've been disappointed
with some of the returns that we've been making
in real estate over the last few years.
So, to try and address this,
we announced last year the establishment
of an in-house real estate team.
And we believe that by taking a more active role
in our real estate investment activities
as we do in our other asset classes, this should allow us
to both improve and diversify our real estate portfolio.
And the way to do that was we asked Pierre Cherki
to join Teachers' to head up our real estate activities.
For those of you who don't know Pierre,
he's somebody with significant
international real estate experience,
having previously been one
of the non-executive directors
at our Canadian real estate business, Cadillac Fairview.
In future, we will focus
on global real estate investing and portfolio management.
And in the case of Cadillac Fairview,
which has a valuable brand
and established footprint in Canada,
they will focus on the growth, diversification,
and densification
of their real estate portfolio in this our home market.
Now, when I was appointed as CEO a few years ago,
I set a north star for everyone and the organization
to reach 300 billion in net assets by the year 2030.
And that number wasn't just chosen
because it was a high aspirational target,
it was also the mathematical calculation of what we needed
to achieve to keep the plan fully funded over that period.
So, how are we doing?
Well, by the end of 2023,
as you heard from Steve McGirr,
we've raised our assets to $247.5 billion.
And that is slightly ahead of the plan
to get to our targeted $300 billion by 2030.
So, overall, as we look forward,
we plan to remain disciplined in the choices that we make.
Our primary focus is absolutely going
to be deliver our long-term target return
of 4% real returns or around 7%,
translating that into a number for 2024.
But having said all of that,
we're not gonna take undue risks,
particularly in the pursuit of high returns.
But we need to keep looking for attractive opportunities
and invest in areas where we think
we can enhance the performance of the plan,
in sectors such as technology, credit, life sciences,
and as I mentioned a minute ago, the energy transition.
But there is a feature of our current market,
which is that M&A activity has certainly reduced
and that means that we also need
to focus very much on optimizing
and creating value from the existing assets
that we already own within our portfolio.
So, whilst we expect it
to remain a dynamic market in the near term,
as Steve said earlier, I'm also confident
that we're taking the right approach
to deliver value of the plan and for you, our members.
So, it's time for me to hand over.
I'm gonna hand it over to Charley Butler
for an update on our member activities.
And when Charley concludes her remarks,
we'll be able to answer your questions
and hopefully speak to you after
at the reception following the Q&A.
So, thank you.
(attendees clapping)
- Thanks so much, Jo. Good evening, everybody.
I'm so delighted to be here with all of you.
And also as always, look forward
to chatting to many of you after our presentations.
To those of us, sorry, to those of you joining us virtually,
thanks for being online tonight.
So, let's get started.
I'm going to be sharing some of member services achievements
and highlights from last year.
As you know, we proudly administer Canada's largest
single profession pension plan.
And we paid $7.7 billion in pension benefits
in 2023 compared to $7.2 billion in 2022.
Despite another challenging year,
we do remain fully funded for the 11th straight year.
But what does this mean for you, our members?
Well, it means that our assets cover all future liabilities.
So, that means we are well-positioned
to provide future retirement security
for all of you, our new, mid,-career
and newly retired teachers,
as well as all of the pensioners.
This also means protection from inflation
for those of you who are retired
and an increase of 4.8% to your pension payments in 2024.
(attendees clapping)
I agree. Thank you.
We understand though some of you
may still feel anxious about maintaining purchasing power.
I do hope that that 2024 inflation adjustment
still helps to maintain your confidence in the plan.
Whether you are still teaching or retired,
we know that your pension is important to you.
Since the plan was first created in 1917,
pension benefits have evolved over the years,
but a few things remain the same.
Teachers continue to work hard,
if not harder, to earn retirement security.
About 26 years on average in 2023 in fact.
And our longstanding commitment over 100 years and counting
to generations of members
motivates the team each and every day
to shape a better future for the teachers we serve.
That's why we have rigorous processes
to manage the changes that happen around us
and a talented team dedicated to serving you
and to delivering long-term growth and performance.
So, let's first take a little look at our membership today.
Year on year, our membership base continues to grow.
Last year, it was up 4,000,
which means we now have 184,000 working members,
156,000 pensioners.
In total, over 7,600 new members joined the plan last year.
Welcome, everybody.
On average, you are contributing
to your pension for 26 years
and the average retirement age is 59,
and you continue to collect a pension for about 32 years.
And by the end of 2023, we will have 42 pensions
that have been in pay for more than 50 years.
Whether we're educating you
about your plan benefits as a new member,
guiding you through a buyback process
partway through your career,
or enabling you to easily apply for your pension online,
our goal is to educate and empower you
to make timely informed decisions with confidence.
We want to help you
get what you need, when, and how you need it.
And so, how do we do this?
Well, our data-driven omnichannel strategy
and digital-first service model
delivers the seamless experience
you have come to expect from us,
whether you're online or calling us.
Our data shows that more of you
are relying on our digital services year on year.
So, we've been expanding
and refining our self-service offerings over the years.
75% of you now have an online account,
so most of you have quick and secure access
to your pension information anytime, anywhere.
For those of you who haven't registered yet,
visit our website to sign up
or talk to one of our pension benefits specialists.
They're here tonight.
98% of those who retired last year
applied for their pension online.
We hope they found the application process
straightforward and easy
and that they're now enjoying
their first year of retirement.
For those of them
who didn't find the application process easy, we hear them.
We listen when they tell us
that the lack of digital updates are a pain point.
And we have made the application experience
even better for our retiring members this year and beyond.
Now, we provide regular digital status updates
at the start of the pension application process,
right up until the time
you receive your first pension payment,
all the reassurance you need,
so that you know everything is on track for your retirement.
As we advance our digital-first strategy,
protecting your personal information remains a key priority.
Cybersecurity risks are increasing.
We all see it every day as consumers.
There are online scams,
identity theft, data breaches, and phishing.
It's important though
that you always feel confident
sharing your data with us online.
So, last year, we launched two-step verification
and this provides an extra layer
of security for your account.
And we're investing more resources this year and ongoing
to ensure we're keeping pace
and driving improvements by assessing
and mitigating cybersecurity risks on an ongoing basis.
Rest assured we've dedicated teams across Ontario Teachers'
who are working hard to ensure we're earning your trust
and confidence in our ability,
and we will keep your pension and personal information safe.
As I mentioned earlier,
we've been expanding our self-service capabilities
since so many of you are active online.
We also invest in digital capability,
because frankly, it's the most efficient way
to keep providing you
with excellent service while keeping costs down,
which ultimately contributes
to greater benefit, pension benefits available to you.
But that doesn't mean we're not investing
in our assisted service experience.
As more of you feel empowered to self-serve,
things like updating your contact information,
uploading documents, accessing your statements online,
and using our pension calculator,
this means our highly trained pension benefit specialists
have even more time to focus on those
who need help with complex issues.
We understand some of your questions, situations,
and issues simply can't be fully addressed online.
Some of the paperwork can be confusing.
Sometimes there's too much information to simply process.
Your personal circumstances
sometimes need special attention,
or sometimes we simply don't offer a service online.
That's when the very best way to serve you
is through our knowledgeable pension benefit specialists.
They can provide step-by-step support
and lend you the helping hand you need.
We will continue to build out
how our team can provide more value
to those who need it most,
particularly the vulnerable and underserved,
as well as members with complex and unique needs.
We're always inspired to do more for you
and last year was no different.
We're not only providing personalized service to members
with complex and unique needs,
we're also helping to level the playing field
for our indigenous employers and members of the plan.
In 2022, we embarked on a journey of learning about members
of our plan who identify as indigenous
and more importantly,
forging relationships with schools on reservations.
Through deeper relationships with these indigenous schools,
we've been able to drive improved data
for members working on reserves,
which has been a very difficult endeavor in the past.
Better data equals quicker and more cost-effective service,
which is good news for everyone.
We hope the small changes we've made so far
and hope to make in the future
will positively impact our indigenous employers and members.
We remain committed
to delivering outstanding service to all.
Here are some more examples.
We provide self-service options now
to survivors receiving a pension.
They can now complete transactions
and view important documents online.
With access to more tailored features,
survivors receive a high standard of service
that aligns also with our digital-first model.
We're also working with the Ontario Teachers' Insurance Plan
to streamline data reporting for participating employers.
As we have a significant shared membership with OTIP,
a partnership just offers a unified data source
that improves efficiency
and reduces effort for school board employers.
(attendee coughing)
Our email campaigns continue to educate
and empower members to make timely informed decisions.
We optimize our emails by testing
and refining send times, subject lines, content, and more.
Our personalized messaging contributed last year
to 31% of member logins, which just demonstrates
that we're reaching you where you are at the right time.
Our commitment to service excellence
was rewarded for yet another year.
We received a strong quality service index score.
This is our primary performance measure
that evaluates the quality
of our member experience, service, and communications.
Last year, 93% of you were again satisfied with our service
and 44% of you gave us a perfect score.
We thank you and we're proud
to receive such strong scores year over year.
On that note, I would like to close by saying,
as you heard from Steve and Jo, your pension is secure.
There will be other challenges ahead,
but I'm so confident that we have the right strategy
and the right talent to deliver long-term growth
and performance to remain fully funded,
and to deliver on the promise of providing a pension
even during times of uncertainty and change
while maintaining our member service excellence.
As always, we're here to help you navigate the plan.
So, please visit our website for more information.
Tonight, as I said, you can also check
with some of the member services team who are here today.
You can identify us all by our red name tags.
So, please just feel free to come and introduce yourselves.
Of course, you can visit the members lounge,
which is in the bottom corner
of the room in the clipper room,
which is located near the elevators.
You can meet our pension benefits specialists there
and they can answer specific questions you might have.
Thank you again for your continued confidence in us.