3ci’s social finance concept on the development of a Canadian Impact Infrastructure Exchange was featured in this morning’s Globe and Mail article highlighting the social finance report released by the Honourable Minister Diane Finley on Monday. The article reads:
“Another of the 15 projects highlighted by Ottawa would dramatically increase the scale of social finance with a Canadian impact infrastructure exchange. It would match large investors such as pension funds with major infrastructure projects such as solar-power plants that would have social benefits.
The idea was put forward by the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation. The centre’s executive director, Tessa Hebb, said she envisions the exchange would attract large pension funds like the $130-billion Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The assets of the CPPIB are projected to reach $275-billion by 2020 and nearly $500-billion by 2040.
Ms. Hebb notes that the CPPIB has signed on to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, and she hopes to persuade the board that investing in social infrastructure – such as energy projects that benefit northern aboriginal communities – is a concrete way of delivering on the U.N. principles.
Ms. Hebb said the common factor among the wide range of social finance ideas is that they combine sectors that previously operated independently, such as charities, non-profits and the private sector.”