Industry committee  I think it would be very important to send a signal, loud and clear, that you want increased gender participation with some targets and some measures.

Industry committee  What was that?

Industry committee  To be effective, you need to have very specific legislation that articulates what the goal is. It would be enhanced by the addition of targets, whether they're in the legislation, or specifically stated when the legislation goes out. Coming back to your statement about boards,

Industry committee  I'm not sure what you mean by “measures”. Are you talking about whether you are achieving diversity with respect to indigenous groups or visible minorities? You should be looking at all of those when you're looking at your percentages as the number is increasing on the boards.

Industry committee  I don't have that in front of me, but I think that the majority of others have set gender targets, i.e., have you attained 30% or 40%? We will look at what you're doing to get there. Setting those kinds of targets requires a measurement, because if you have no goal then it's very

Industry committee  I would just say that you don't need to wait five years to do your analysis. You should be doing it on an annual basis since some of the things you've set out, like gender and diversity, you would want to look at on an annual basis. You don't necessarily have to review the entire

Industry committee  I think there's much more in this legislation, obviously, than diversity and gender. It's a very important and large piece of legislation. If you really want to look at whether you are being successful with respect to your goals around gender and diversity, you need to be looking

Industry committee  I think there definitely should be one. I think for a full review, the norm is about five years.

Industry committee  For me, it's the whole “explain”. If you're not complying, how are you doing? When you talk about putting in reports, annual or otherwise, there should be an explanation. How are you achieving it? Have you made diversity one of your priorities within the organization? Those are m

Industry committee  I wasn't there when the legislation was crafted, and I would not presume to speak on behalf of any members of the government because I'm not in the government. It's something that warrants looking at very closely, whether you want to be the leaders and actually step forward and s

Industry committee  I would certainly recommend that the word “gender” appear in the legislation itself, so that you're crystal clear that's one of the things you are doing. By adding gender, you're saying we want equitable gender representation on our boards. We also want diversity, but equitable

Industry committee  I'm not going to comment again on the politics, because that's not my role here.

Industry committee  It's not simple, obviously. There have been many efforts by many corporations.

Industry committee  Yes, but let me finish. It's not simple but it's very doable. It's doable when you have leadership from the top, when there's the will in the organization, and when they look at all of their processes: their hiring processes, their promotional processes, how they are doing in ter

Industry committee  I think you can put it out in some of the messages coming from here, as you put the bill out, that there's all sorts of evidence pointing to the significance and the economic advantage of having women and diversity on your boards. The studies are there, and if you're in the corpo