Considering the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Moose Jaw’s investments had a strong year in 2020. 

An update was given from the Investment Committee during the city council meeting on Monday. 

“The fourth quarter was certainly a nice surprise after honestly, being in this industry myself, we thought the bottom was falling out in March, April, and May. It turned out to be one of the best years that the market has had,” said Coun. Dawn Luhning, who is the vice-chair of the Investment Committee. 

The city’s moderate-term portfolio had an annual return objective of 4.25 per cent and the actual return in 2020 was 6.46 per cent or $1.925 million. 

The long-term portfolio had a return objective of six per cent and had an actual return of 9.92 per cent or just over $7 million. 

The total investment earnings were $8.967 million. 

“We might not always get this rate of return, and so part of that is putting away so that we have a higher amount to make interest on, and so you know we're paying attention to this. We've never done that before,” said Mayor Fraser Tolmie. 

The city has about $100 million in investments. 

The funds were originally held in bonds but were sold in May of 2019 and reinvested into Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs).  

Some of those GICs were sold in 2020 resulting in investment gains. Those were reinvested in global bonds and equities with higher returns than the GICs.  

Luhning said, since inception, the equities have seen returns of 14.95 per cent in the moderate-term pool and 15.34 per cent in the long-term pool. 

The investments allow the city to look at funding capital projects in the future without borrowing or raising taxes.