Mark Machin, the head of Canada’s largest pension fund, received a Covid-19 vaccine shot in the Middle East, according to people familiar with the issue, ahead of millions of Canadians awaiting one of the slowest launches in the Western world.
The 54-year-old executive director of the $ 379 billion Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board arrived in the United Arab Emirates earlier this month with his partner and received the first dose of vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc.
and Germany BioNTech SE,
according to people familiar with the problem. He told contacts that he used local connections to get the vaccines, some of those said, and remained in the UAE and will receive the second dose in the coming weeks, they said.
Mr Machin did not comment when contacted by phone and email. A CPPIB spokesman and Mr Machin said he had “deeply personal” reasons for traveling to the United Arab Emirates. “I can assure you that zero influence has been applied or sought to be applied” to get the vaccine, he said. the spokesperson.
The CPPIB is a crown corporation, which means that it is governed independently of the federal government, but it is the administrator of the pension obligations that are mandated by the government. Reports to a board of directors, which is selected by the Canadian Minister of Finance.
A spokeswoman for the Canadian Ministry of Finance said that “although the CPPIB is an independent organization, this is very worrying. The federal government has been clear to Canadians that now is not the time to travel abroad. We were not aware of this trip. ”
There is no evidence that Mr Machin, a British citizen, violated any law to secure his dose. The Canadian government has asked residents to avoid traveling abroad, but has not banned it. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has said it distributes vaccines to residents, a name that foreigners can obtain through activities such as investing, buying property or setting up a local company. There is no evidence that Mr Machin is a resident.
The UAE has made exceptions to its residency requirements. In January, the UAE-sponsored cycling team that won the 2020 Tour de France – a group of about 60 non-resident cyclists and staff – received doses of Chinese-made vaccine in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE, a federation of seven emirates that includes the Dubai shopping center, has surpassed almost every country in the world with an ambitious vaccination campaign led by the rapid embrace of the Chinese-made vaccine. Since December, the shooting has been readily available and free for any adult resident or citizen. The country also offers the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has been shown in clinical trials to be more effective but less common. It was reserved mainly for people over the age of 60 or with chronic health conditions in the UAE.
As head of the CPPIB, Mr Machin is responsible for overseeing the money allocated to retirement for the approximately 20 million Canadians who contribute to the country’s public pension plan. CPPIB is one of the largest pension funds in the world, with influence in foreign markets and companies globally.
The Canadian fund in March 2020 held stakes in several companies in the United Arab Emirates, including Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC and Emirates Telecommunications Group Co. PJSC, according to the fund’s annual information on foreign shares. Last year, the fund invested in the $ 5.4 billion start of Kuaishou Technology, a Chinese video streaming startup, along with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a large UAE sovereign wealth fund.
Mr. Machin’s vaccination, which has not been reported before, comes amid outrage in other parts of the world, in cases where rich or well-connected people have managed to cross the vaccine line. Most of the world is carefully analyzing the doses to give priority to the most vulnerable or those on the front line fighting the pandemic.
In Peru, dozens of government advisers, lobby groups, cabinet ministers and people connected to them, and the former president and his family, secretly received the vaccines last year – triggering a scandal there now called the Vaccine Gate. Last month, Florida restricted vaccines to those who could prove residency. Officials there have offered to shoot anyone over the age of 65, but have become concerned that the state is becoming an attraction for vaccine tourism. Many Canadians, in particular, have sought to rent planes for quick trips to Florida for vaccines.
Vaccines are particularly rare in Canada. The country’s federal government has faced criticism for its slow vaccination rate, which lags behind rates in the US, the UK and most major European nations. About 4% of the Canadian population received at least one dose, compared to 20% in the US, according to a tracker from Oxford University.
Against the background of the pandemic, the trips made by officials and business leaders were carefully examined. Ontario’s finance minister resigned in December after a holiday abroad amid federal and provincial travel recommendations.
The recommendations do not prohibit official travel, but Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said the resignation demonstrates “our government takes our obligation to maintain a higher standard seriously”. Linda Hasenfratz, executive director of auto parts manufacturer Linamar Corp. resigned last month from an Ontario government working group on the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine after traveling abroad. Ms Hasenfratz said in a statement that she regretted her decision to travel.
The CPPIB spokesperson said that employee travel has stopped almost completely due to the pandemic, but there are still some business and personal trips, noting that the fund has assets abroad.
Former investment banker Goldman Sachs Group Inc. For two decades, Mr. Machin has been the executive director of the Toronto Pension Fund since June 2016. He previously oversaw its international operations. Prior to his financial career, he qualified as a physician in the United Kingdom after studying medicine at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
Write to Jenny Strasburg at [email protected], Summer Said at [email protected] and Jacquie McNish at [email protected]
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