In June of 2014 I launched a report called “Good For Business”. You can get a copy of it on the Status of Women website. It outlines a number of initiatives to increase the number of women that we have on boards with an aspirational goal of 30% by 2019.
That focuses on the fact that we know that having more women representatives on boards aids a firm in many ways. It could be through recruitment of better top talent, an increase in ROI, or an opportunity to expand the number of jobs they have available. We moved forward with this “nudge” to make sure that corporate Canada was moving forward but with the understanding that we have already set a leadership goal. The Government of Canada has been very focused on making sure that it is representative. Our Governor-in-Council appointments are already at 31% and growing. We know that over 30% of our judicial appointments are women. In fact, here in Canada I think we have something to be proud of. The lead at the Supreme Court of Canada and the new Clerk of the Privy Council of Canada are both women, which is unique for a G-8 country.
The comply-or-explain part of this goes hand in glove with an initiative by the Ontario Securities Commission. We know that comply or explain provides opportunities. Again, it's a nudge to make sure that corporate Canada is doing the right thing, investing in women and providing women with leadership opportunities, because they are being peer-reviewed. We have now adopted that. It was announced in economic action plan 2015 through the implementation of comply or explain in the Canada Business Corporation Act.
Thank you very much.