snowballing governance scandal<\/a> at CAAT that started with the board\u2019s handling of two matters related to CEO Derek Dobson that were first reported by The Globe and Mail this week. The first was a romantic relationship Dobson had with an employee, which was disclosed to the board in November 2024, and ultimately sanctioned. The second had to do with a $1.6-million payment to Dobson that the board approved last year in lieu of vacation time.<\/p>\nThose decisions raised concerns for several executives \u2014 Mike Dawson, chief financial officer; Asif Haque, chief investment officer; and Evan Howard, chief pension officer \u2014 who resigned en masse last month after taking their misgivings to the board, according to the Globe.<\/p>\n
In a statement published Wednesday, OPSEU said it had suspended Smith,\u00a0pending an internal investigation, on Jan. 23, and called on another plan, College Employer Council (CEC),\u00a0to investigate its appointee, vice-chair Kareen Stangherlin.<\/p>\n
While it appoints five trustees to the CAAT board of trustees and three to the sponsor\u2019s committee, OPSEU \u201chas no direct influence on the administrative decision-making of the CAAT Pension Plan board of trustees,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
However, the union said it\u2019s \u201cseeking accountability and is taking action that is within our scope.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The internal investigation into Smith, it said, \u201cis in response to allegations that the chair and vice-chair, Kareen Stangherlin \u2014 the CEC appointed trustee \u2014 may have acted outside the policies and procedures of the plan. We are calling on the College Employer Council to open an investigation into the actions of their appointed trustee as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement, an OPSEU spokesperson said the union\u2019s internal investigation into Smith\u2019s actions is ongoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOPSEU\/SEFPO suspended Don Smith as our appointed trustee on January 23rd, 2026, and our understanding is that this suspension was acted upon by the sponsor\u2019s committee yesterday,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe decision to elect the chair and vice-chair of the board of trustees lies exclusively with CAAT Pension Plan\u2019s board of trustees. The trustees elect from within their ranks who will act as the chair and vice-chair; OPSEU\/SEFPO does not have direct influence over the decisions of the board.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if there are any ongoing or planned investigations into the board\u2019s actions, Hewitt said a review of the pension plan\u2019s governance policies was initiated by the board last year, and should be finished soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn December, 2025, the board of trustees appointed an independent expert to conduct a review that covers CAAT\u2019s governance policies, procedures and practices. The review is in advanced stages and is on track to be complete in the coming weeks,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cLike any high-performing organization, the board is continuously seeking to improve and strengthen even further. If changes are recommended to continue to provide effective governance and align with best practices, the board will consider them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hewitt said there are no planned or ongoing investigations into Dobson\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the financial strength of the defined-benefit pension plan, which had $23.3 billion in assets under management at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CAAT Plan continues to rank among the most well-funded and highest-performing pension plans in Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cWe currently hold $1.24 for every $1 promised in benefits \u2014 one of the strongest indicators of funding health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Smith had earlier been suspended, at the request of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which appointed him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[68012,45,49,48,6314,187208,133,171,131,132],"class_list":["post-456684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-appointments","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-corporate-governance","tag-db-pensions","tag-finance","tag-people","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456684","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=456684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}