Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for the question. I didn't define it as clearly as I probably should have.
Say, for example, you have some boards...and I'm looking at the greater Toronto area, for example, in which 32% of the boards don't have any women on them. Despite being 50% of the population, if they're shareholders or they're participants, they're not represented there. My point was that the company would then have to address that to some degree. It doesn't mean anything changes in that relationship; it just shows an example. It's just like, for example, in Montreal, where visible minorities make up 20% of the population but they represent only 2% of boards and senior management.
My point is that the company would be up there not looking like the shareholders. This would actually then at least provide some explanation, and it could be good for the companies to give the reasons why. It could actually lead to some positive things. For example, we saw some of the gender role model examples that were provided here at committee about mentorship and so forth. They brought in these programs. It might lead to that, but nothing is forced on them. It's just basically that if you look at Montreal, for example, with how diverse that community is and only 2% are in leadership roles, that's just screaming for its own separate legislation, really.
That's the intent. There won't be anything forced upon...but I think it would just highlight a little more the explanation process. I think that's probably where you get some of those gender programs specifically for women to get going in the mentorship models. That wouldn't even take legislation, because there is this obvious distinct difference between the two.
Hopefully that clarifies it.