(Adds comments from minister)
By Allison Lampert and Matt Scuffham
MONTREAL/TORONTO, May 9 (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc BBDb.TO faced fresh pension fund opposition to the re-election of its executive chairman on Tuesday and the Quebec government said the plane and train maker should listen to the growing number of institutional shareholders citing governance concerns.
The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP) withheld its vote on the re-election of Pierre Beaudoin at Bombardier's annual meeting on Thursday, echoing similar moves by Quebec and British Columbia funds.
"Our assessment of recent events confirms the need for independent board leadership," the OTTP, which does not disclose its position, said on its website.
Beaudoin, a former chief executive, is a scion of Bombardier's founding family, which controls the company through its dual-class share structure. The shareholders' decision follow an outcry over controversial executive pay hikes at Bombardier, which Beaudoin later agreed to forgo and other executives agreed to defer.
The pay raises of up to 50 percent for 2016 came after Bombardier received more than $1 billion in federal and provincial government funding. The pay hikes sparked protests outside Bombardier's Montreal headquarters and calls by opposition leaders for a company freeze on executive compensation.
Quebec Economy Minister Dominique Anglade said the company should "clearly be listening to its shareholders".
While the Quebec government, a partner in Bombardier's CSeries narrowbody jet program, would not take a position on Beaudoin's future as executive chairman, Anglade said she understood shareholders' concerns.
"I'm not entirely surprised because there was a decision that was made that led to an unacceptable pay increase," she said in a telephone interview.
On Monday, Quebec's largest pension fund Caisse de depot et placement, one of Bombardier's biggest shareholders, said that it had withheld its vote for Beaudoin and called for a fully independent director to head the board. Columbia's main public sector pension fund has gone further, saying it planned to withhold support from all five of the Bombardier-Beaudoin family members on the company's board.