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By Fiona Anderson
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, January 27, 2007
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said Friday he no longer owns any Alcan shares and does not know if he made or lost money when they were sold Jan. 11.
Adrian Mastracci, fee-only portfolio manager at KCM Wealth Management in Vancouver, says, "Once you hand over your money . . . the manager will buy and sell whatever they think is good for you."
Nevertheless, NDP energy critic John Horgan pressed ahead with his plan to ask Conflict of Interest Commissioner H.A.D. Oliver if ownership of the shares put Campbell in a conflict of interest.
The shares were part of a discretionary equity portfolio managed for Campbell by a Vancouver brokerage.
"I have no control over the sale or purchase of the shares," Campbell said. "I don't have any direction, it's a total discretionary fund, so I can't tell you whether I made or didn't make money on it."
Horgan, who filed the official conflict complaint Friday, said: "It think that it's appropriate the commissioner review this so that we get a determination from him so that the public can be at ease that everything that could have been done was done to avoid that conflict.
"On the surface today, it appears to me that there would be an apparent conflict of interest," Horgan said.
In August, the provincial government made a deal with Alcan involving a $2-billion upgrade at its aluminum smelter in Kitimat that would have allowed the company to sell excess electricity to BC Hydro.
The deal was struck down in late December by the B.C. Utilities Commission, which said it was not in the best interests of the province. Hydro and Alcan have both said they will appeal the ruling.
Campbell held the Alcan shares in an "independence account" with Canaccord Capital, which provides discretionary investment services for clients with a minimum of $100,000 to invest.
Canaccord did not return calls from The Vancouver Sun Friday but according to the company's website, the accounts operate much like mutual funds, in which investors buy into a certain portfolio strategy but are not involved in day-to-day investment decisions.
Unlike mutual funds, the investors own the actual securities rather than units in a fund.
"There's a lot of similarity to a mutual fund," said Adrian Mastracci, portfolio manager with KCM Wealth Management. "Once you hand over your money . . . the manager will buy and sell whatever they think is good for you," Mastracci added. "So you have no say in picking the securities and when to buy and sell."
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