{"id":456048,"date":"2026-02-05T19:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456048\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T19:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:21:08","slug":"caat-pension-plan-board-chair-removed-as-trustee-amid-upheaval-over-governance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456048\/","title":{"rendered":"CAAT Pension Plan board chair removed as trustee amid upheaval over governance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

CAAT is a multiemployer pension plan that serves Ontario\u2019s colleges and more than 800 public- and private-sector employers.Merle Robillard\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The chair of the CAAT Pension Plan\u2019s board of trustees has been removed from his position by the union that appointed him, as investigations into alleged governance failures at the $23-billion pension fund are under way.<\/p>\n

Don Smith had earlier been suspended as CAAT\u2019s board chair by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), the labour group that appoints a number of the pension plan\u2019s board members, as The Globe and Mail reported Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two days after CAAT said in a statement that Mr. Smith was still serving as chair \u201cuntil he is formally removed\u201a\u201d despite his suspension, OPSEU representatives on CAAT\u2019s sponsors\u2019 committee formally revoked his appointment.<\/p>\n

The sponsors\u2019 committee is an eight-member group that represents the interests of the plan\u2019s employers and members. CAAT is a multiemployer pension plan that serves Ontario\u2019s colleges and more than 800 public- and private-sector employers. It has a total of about 125,000 members.<\/p>\n

A co-chair of CAAT\u2019s sponsors\u2019 committee, Darryl Bedford, confirmed that Mr. Smith has been removed from the board, but declined to comment further when reached by telephone. <\/p>\n

CAAT spokesperson Stephen Hewitt also confirmed in an e-mail that OPSEU\u2019s sponsors\u2019 committee members \u201chave removed Don Smith as a trustee of the CAAT board of trustees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CAAT board \u201cwill appoint a new chair at its meeting later this month,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

There are multiple investigations into CAAT\u2019s governance, stemming from concerns raised by top executives about the approval of a $1.6-million vacation payout to the plan\u2019s chief executive officer, Derek Dobson, as well as a personal relationship he has been having with a CAAT employee for more than a year. Three of the plan\u2019s top executives abruptly left<\/a> the plan in January, deepening the governance crisis at the plan. <\/p>\n

The vice-chair of CAAT\u2019s board, Kareen Stangherlin, is also under pressure. <\/p>\n

Ms. Stangherlin was appointed to the board by the College Employer Council (CEC), which serves Ontario\u2019s publicly-funded colleges and bargains on their behalf in contract negotiations with unionized staff. OPSEU called for the CEC to investigate Ms. Stangherlin\u2019s actions as vice-chair as well, in a statement<\/a>. <\/p>\n

OPSEU said its own investigation is looking into concerns that the board\u2019s chair and vice-chair \u201cmay have acted outside the policies and procedures of the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

An OPSEU spokesperson, Aidan McNally, said the union has not yet had a response from the CEC, in a statement.<\/p>\n

The CEO of the CEC, Graham Lloyd, said he is aware that CAAT has retained an external governance expert who is preparing a report. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect and encourage that process and once that\u2019s completed we will be in a better position to assess what\u2019s happening,\u201d he said in an interview. <\/p>\n

In December, CAAT appointed a third-party expert to conduct a governance review, which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. <\/p>\n

The provincial pensions regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, is also examining concerns related to CATT and whether there were governance failures.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article has been updated to correct the surname of OPSEU spokesperson Aidan McNally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: CAAT is a multiemployer pension plan that serves Ontario\u2019s colleges and more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,133,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,131,132,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-456048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-finance","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}