Fondaction
Fondaction is a Quebec labour-sponsored investment fund, a union-backed fund that channels workers' retirement savings into impact, created by the CSN union federation in 1996. Water is one thin slice of its social and environmental mandate: as of 2026 it has backed two Quebec water companies, both alongside Cycle Capital's water fund.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Fondaction is one of Quebec's two big labour-sponsored funds, the union-backed vehicles that let ordinary workers buy RRSP-eligible shares (a tax-advantaged retirement account) and pour the proceeds back into the local economy. It was created in 1996 by the CSN, one of Quebec's largest union federations, and it has always carried a double mandate: earn a retirement return, and bend the province's economy to be fairer and greener. By November 2025 it held more than CA$4.2 billion in net assets for 225,515 shareholders, a record.
Fondaction's water bets do not come from a water thesis. They fall out of a deliberate environmental-transition mandate the fund spent a decade building, from a dedicated impact-investing arm to Fondaction Asset Management and its climate and natural-capital funds. Water sits inside that environmental book, next to clean energy, the circular economy and carbon, never in a pure-play water strategy of its own.
Fondaction's water portfolio is just two Quebec companies, and both share one instinct: hardware that saves or watches water inside a building. Fondaction backed RegenEAU, which recovers heat from wastewater to cut a building's energy use, and BioAlert Solutions, whose automated on-site system detects waterborne pathogens like Legionella in hours instead of lab-weeks. Both are early-stage Quebec deals it co-invested with Cycle Capital's water-focused Cycle H2O fund, the clearest sign of how a generalist impact fund reaches water: through a specialist partner.
Fondaction is in the middle of a leadership turnover as it deepens this work. In April 2026 Stephan Morency, who spent the prior decade building the fund's climate and social-finance practice, became president and CEO, and in May 2026 Rose Marcello took over as chief investment officer. The open question is whether water graduates from a two-deal footnote into a named part of that environmental book, or stays an occasional cheque written beside a water specialist.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Fondaction invest in?
- Fondaction invests the retirement savings of Quebec workers across the province's small and mid-sized companies, the financial markets and impact funds, prioritising social and environmental returns alongside a financial one. Its water exposure is small: it has backed two Quebec water companies, RegenEAU and BioAlert Solutions, through its impact investing.
- Is Fondaction a water fund?
- No. Fondaction is a broad Quebec labour-sponsored impact fund managing more than CA$4 billion in net assets, and water is a tiny slice of a much wider social and environmental mandate. Across the companies (don't) Waste Water tracks, Fondaction has backed two Quebec water companies, both early-stage and co-invested with a water specialist.
- Who runs Fondaction?
- Fondaction has been led by president and CEO Stephan Morency since April 2026, when he succeeded Genevieve Morin on her retirement. Morency built the fund's climate and social-finance practice over the prior decade. Rose Marcello became vice-president and chief investment officer in May 2026.
- Where is Fondaction based?
- Fondaction is based in Montreal, Quebec, and invests across the Canadian province of Quebec. Created in 1996 by the CSN union federation, it is one of two large labour-sponsored funds in Quebec, union-backed vehicles that sell RRSP-eligible shares to workers and reinvest the money in the local economy.
- Is Fondaction the same as the Fonds de solidarite FTQ?
- No. Fondaction was created in 1996 by the CSN union federation, while the larger Fonds de solidarite FTQ is the labour-sponsored fund of the rival FTQ federation, founded in 1983. Both are Quebec union-backed impact funds, but they are separate organisations with different sponsors and portfolios.