Public Sector Pension & Mahi Pono
Who is PSP/Mahi Pono?
Mahi Pono is a Limited Liability Company, whose sole member is Mahi Pono Holdings. Mahi Pono Holdings’ sole member is the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP). PSP manages the pension funds of the Canadian federal Public Service, the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Reserve Force. In late 2018, PSP bought 41,000 acres of Maui’s agricultural lands from the former plantation owners (A&B/HC&S). Their new venture has been named Mahi Pono.
PSP’s mandate is not to employ local people or support sustainable agriculture. Instead, the fund is legally bound to maximize returns on its investments.
What We Know
1
PSP is working to privatize public water around the world
PSP also invested nearly half a billion dollars in water rights in Australia amid ongoing droughts and climate uncertainties. Privatization reduces access to water, increases system costs, and denies indigenous people’s spiritual and sustenance rights.
2
PSP is a foreign corporation using the word “Pono” as a front
PSP is engaged in unethical business dealings worldwide. They mass-evicted hundreds of tenants in Canada during the pandemic due to unfair rent hikes, and are under investigation by the U.S. Congress for similar evictions.
3
PSP is legally bound to maximize returns on their investments
PSP’s mandate isn’t to employ Maui locals or support sustainable agriculture. Instead, the fund is legally bound to maximize returns on its investments. According to the U.S. census, only 44% of farms are profitable, so we must question their intentions to farm central Maui in the future.
4
PSP is trying to control Maui’s water until at least 2052
PSP wants a 30-year-lease to secure water rights at very cheap prices for a very long time – a generation and a half! Cheap water will increase the investment return for their pension holders, increase the value of their land, and give PSP control over Maui’s largest public water source.
What The Press Is Saying About PSP
Canadian pension fund invests in ex-plantation privatizing Hawaii’s water
Breach Media
“Native Hawaiians, farmers, environmental groups and local politicians are denouncing it as a ‘crime’ and ‘continuation of the plantation legacy,’ and say it will maintain the privatization of their waters.” Read more
Canadian pension fund loads up on Australian water rights and almond farms
The Sydney Morning Herald
“A Canadian pension fund has bought a huge parcel of Australian permanent water rights for $490 million to irrigate almond trees, in a move that puts the spotlight on foreign ownership of farms and water resources as drought continues to ravage the country.” Read more
Canadian LTC Operator Revera Faces 'Troubling' Tax Avoidance Allegations In U.K.
Huffington Post
“The long-term care home company owned by the (PSP) Investment Board that has seen hundreds of resident deaths during the pandemic, appears to shift taxable profits out of the U.K. into subsidiaries in countries with more favorable tax laws.” Read more
Feds Say They’re Powerless To Improve Care Homes Owned By Pension Board
Huffington Post
“PSP Investments, the federal agency that manages pensions for federal employees, the RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces, owns a 100 per cent stake in Revera Inc, which has been accused of being “systemically negligent” in its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Read more
Canada’s Largest Federal Pension Plan Divests From US Private Prisons Amid Pressure
Forbes
“Imagine the horror of discovering that your family’s security is actually being attained by separating someone else’s family. This is precisely what just happened in Canada as pensioners discovered their money was being invested in private prisons.” Read more
PSP and Trinitas Accused
of Greenwashing
Hawaiian ESG Investment
Institutional Investor
“PSP is under fire for greenwashing a sustainable investment in Hawaii. Responsible Markets argues that Mahi Pono depends on securing water at rates that are exploitative to indigenous Hawaiians and diverts water from local farmland.” Read more
Public Service Pensions Putting Profit Before People
PSAC Union
”Our union has been campaigning to pressure the Public Sector Pension Plan to end its investment in Revera Inc., the second largest Canadian network of for-profit long-term facilities. Pension funds should not be used for the exploitation of marginalized and vulnerable people” Read more
When Big Money Moved in on Maui’s Agriculture
The Maui ESG Investment Project
“Mahi Pono LLC, backed by an investment from a large Canadian union pension plan, embraced the language of sustainable investment and promised to do right by the community. Instead, working with previous landowner A&B, Mahi Pono continued many of A&B’s practices and behaviors, in particular seeking to secure bargain-rate water leases” Read more
Are these the people we want controlling the future of Maui’s most precious water source?
Vote Yes on the Ballot Measure to bring control of our public water to our communities.
People like to say here in Hawaiʻi that land is power, but really water is power.
— William Paty, former Chairman Dept. of Land and Natural Resources