The following is an excerpt from Invested in Crisis: Public Sector Pensions Against the Future by Tom Fraser. Fraser traces the rise of the province’s pension funds by melding history, geography, and political economy to situate this growth in the context of Ontario’s deindustrialization, the rise of finance, and the global politics of the built environment.

In late April, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro brought down the gavel on the sale of water and sewage services from the publicly owned Companhia Estadual de Águas e Esgotos to Igua Saneamento, confirming the privatization of part of Rio de Janeiro’s public water utility. The selling off of parts of CEDAE is worthy of raised eyebrows on its own. Yet also in need of attention is the integral role which Canadian pension capital played in the process.