Pile Drivers, Divers, Bridge, Dock & Wharf Builders Health Benefits & Pension Plan

Pile Drivers, Divers, Bridge, Dock & Wharf Builders Health Benefits & Pension Plan

The Pile Drivers, Divers, Bridge, Dock & Wharf Builders Health Benefits & Pension Plan was established in 1970 to administer retirement and health benefits for members of the specialized heavy-construction union Local 2404, a local of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. Operating from Burnaby, British Columbia, the plan is a registered private-sector pension fund overseen by a board of trustees that includes business managers of Local 2404, notably Darrell Hawk as Chair. The fund is also a member of the broader BC Building Trades Council, coordinating on industry-wide standards for union retirement plans. The plan's investment strategy is concentrated in direct Canadian real estate and infrastructure, deploying capital through anchored institutional relationships rather than wide-scale fund commitments. Its largest known holding is a shareholding in Vancouver-based Concert Properties, a diversified real estate development and management company, alongside unitholder status in the Concert Infrastructure Fund managed by Concert Infrastructure Ltd. These positions give the plan exposure to large-scale mixed-use developments, including Southeast False Creek and the Quebec & 1st Project in Vancouver. The plan also directly owns the Local 2404 Training Centre in Delta, BC, a purpose-built industrial asset on Annacis Island. The geographic footprint is concentrated in British Columbia, with broader Canadian exposure through Concert's national portfolio. The board of trustees, comprising union business managers like Hawk and Kurt Kashuba, is the primary governance body for all investment decisions. The plan's external administrative functions are handled by Convyta for pension and benefit eligibility and Pacific Blue Cross for health claims processing. The plan is registered with the BC Financial Services Authority (Registration 85441-1) and participates in investment advocacy through the Shareholder Association for Research & Education (SHARE), aligning with the union's broader responsible-investor engagement efforts. A notable operational affiliation includes partnership with Community Savings Credit Union, designated the 'Unions' Credit Union'. The plan's structural differentiator is its dual identity: it operates both as a health-and-welfare fund and a defined-benefit pension plan, deploying a deliberately narrow, tangible-asset investment strategy that directly mirrors the physical work of its membership. This alignment — investing pension assets into the very real estate developments and infrastructure projects built by its members — creates a closed-loop capital model uncommon among decentralized Taft-Hartley-style benefit plans.