Looking at Statistics Canada and Benefits Canada data, an immediately recognizable trend is the ascendance of the public sector fund category in a few years. Set up by federal, provincial and municipal governments - including crown corporations, agencies and certain educational and health institutions - these funds held 61 percent of total assets, according to Statistics Canada, while covering slightly less than half of all plan members.^{Endnote 9}

A still greater proportion of the largest pension funds is situated in the public sector (63 of 100 in 1997). Indeed, Benefits Canada reveals an especially heavy concentration of capital resources in the top handful. For instance, of the top twenty, only five are private sector funds.^{Endnote 10} A parallel trend is underway in the United States, led by that country's largest public sector plan, the $130 billion-plus California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).

At just above or below $10 billion in total assets, respectively, the two largest private sector pension funds in Canada are the group of Bell Canada or BCE pension plans, managed by the in-house Bell Investment Management Corporation (BIMCOR), and Canadian National Railways Pension. The third largest is the over $6 billion construction industry pension plan administered by the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ), while the fourth, at over $5 billion, is the pension plan of General Motors of Canada.

Be they private sector or public, consideration of pension asset concentration at the top is not an academic exercise. Rather, viewing those with exceedingly high asset levels - $4 billion (the top twenty), $9 billion (the top ten) or $25 billion (the top three) at the end of 1997 - sheds some light on the degree to which a small collection of mega-funds wield particular clout in Canada's financial system. This clout is all the greater in public securities exchanges. In a universe of well over 3,500 funds in total, the twenty largest, taken together, reflect over 57 percent of all assets. The top ten reflect very nearly 44 percent, and the top three, 28 percent.

What Statistics Canada and Benefits Canada data do not highlight is the further consolidation of the assets of public sector pension plans through several money management institutions. This trail was blazed by the Caisse de dépôt et placement, established by legislation in Quebec in 1965, with current total assets in excess of $64 billion. Much of the latter dollar amount is derived from fourteen employer-sponsored plans, including the Quebec public employees plan and CCQ, as well as the Fonds du Régime de rentes du Québec.^{Endnote 11}

In British Columbia, a comparable model emerged in the late 1970s and has since been re-organized in the provincial Ministry of Finance and Corporate Relations as the legally-independent Office of the Chief Investment Officer (OCIO). With current assets of $52 billion, the OCIO is the money manager for seven public sector pension plans, including the British Columbia Municipal Superannuation Fund and the British Columbia Public Service Basic Superannuation Fund.^{Endnote 12} Similarly, five pension plans, such as the Alberta Local Authorities Pension Plan and the Alberta Public Service Pension Plan, form nearly half of the $33 billion Investment Management Division (IMD) of the Alberta Treasury. IMD inception took place almost two decades ago.^{Endnote 13} Still another is the $5.3 billion New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation (IMC), a crown corporation set up in 1996 with a statutory mandate for allocating the assets of three public sector pension funds, including the New Brunswick Public Service Superannuation Plan and the New Brunswick Teachers Pension Plan.^{Endnote 14} Like the Caisse de dépôt, several of these entities aggregate and invest other public monies as well.