Item - 2021.IB13.5

The Toronto Investment Board:

1.  Authorized the Director, Capital Markets, to initiate a non-competitive procurement to retain the recommended third-party information provider identified in Confidential Attachment 2 to the report (August 20, 2021) from the Director, Capital Markets and in the alternative to retain the second recommended third-party information provider identified in Confidential Attachment 2 to the report (August 20, 2021) from the Director, Capital Markets to provide metrics in the area of assessing Environmental, Social, and Governance performance which would facilitate a response to the City Council request to the Toronto Investment Board and the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer to develop a process to monitor and report on whether or not external investment firms hired by the City are compliant with the terms of the Investment Policy with respect to Environmental, Social, and Governance factors.

2. Authorized the Chair or Vice-Chair of the Investment Board to execute an agreement with the recommended provider in Part 1, above, on behalf of the Investment Board.

3.  Directed that Confidential Attachments 1 and 2 to the report (August 20, 2021) from the Director, Capital Markets remain confidential in their entirety, as they pertain to the security of property belonging to the City or one of its agencies or corporations.

The Toronto Investment Board authorized a Request for Proposal for a third-party Environmental, Social, and Governance information provider at its meeting on October 7, 2020. This report provides an update to secure the services of an information provider.

An invitational Request for Proposal was developed and issued during Q1 2021. Receipt of bid submissions closed on April 12, 2021. Unfortunately the process was unsuccessful and the iRFP was officially closed and cancelled on June 3, 2021.  Confidential Attachment 1 provides a listing of the information providers that were sent the invitational Request for Proposal  and their individual responses.

The next option is to conduct a non-competitive procurement given the results of the invitational Request for Proposal. During August 2020, several of the City's current investment managers were surveyed to gather information on the most prominent and preferred Environmental, Social, and Governance information service providers, which also would present the least conflict with the City's current investment processes. The results of the survey are detailed in Confidential Attachment 2.

City staff will move forward and conduct a non-competitive procurement for the services from the Environmental, Social, and Governance information provider that was identified by a majority investment managers in Confidential Attachment 2. Should an agreement not be reached with the recommended firm identified in Confidential Attachment 2, the second recommended firm identified in the attachment should be used as an alternative.