The Globe & Mail newspaper reports that there are two options on the table for Corporate Board Diversity policy and disclosure for public companies in Canada being debated amongst Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA).
Provincial securities administrators, who comprise the CSA, are divided on the best approach, and the CSA has published two new rule proposals for discussion, one more robust than the other.
One, supported only by the Ontario Securities Commission, would require companies to report on the number of members of each of the four designated groups, as well as women, on their boards and in executive officer positions. The rule would require companies to use a standardized table so investors could compare numbers. And companies would need to disclose any written strategy, policies and measurable objectives relating to diversity on their board.
The other proposal does not require companies to disclose diversity numbers. Instead, a company would only be required to describe its chosen diversity objectives and how it would measure progress. If an issuer collects data on specific groups “relevant to its approach to diversity,” the data would need to be disclosed, but no specific table or format would be required by regulators. The CSA says securities regulators in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories back this approach.
Regulators in Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, Yukon and Prince Edward Island “have not expressed a preference at this time,” the CSA said in its explanation.
In 2020, the Canadian government issued new requirements for diversity disclosure for companies incorporated federally under the Canada Business Corporations Act. The rules expanded disclosures to cover visible minorities, Indigenous people and disabled people, but left out LGBTQ individuals.
The full article can be read HERE.