Canada: Report: 2021 Diversity Disclosure Practices – Diversity And Leadership At Canadian Public Companies

Introduction

Welcome to our seventh annual comprehensive report on diversity disclosure practices in Canada, covering disclosure by TSX-listed companies and CBCA corporations subject to disclosure requirements. Our report provides detailed disclosure on the representation of women in senior leadership positions at TSX-listed companies as well as the representation of women, members of visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples and persons with disabilities at publicly-traded corporations governed by the Canada Business Corporations  Act (CBCA). We also highlight disclosed best practices to improve diversity and inclusion and samples  of excellence in disclosure.

First, the good news...

Even after seven years of diversity disclosure, the Canadian public company boards continue to add more women directors at a steady pace. Women now hold approximately 23.4% of board seats among TSX-listed companies disclosing the number of women on their boards, an increase of almost 2 percentage points over last year. The rate at which women are being appointed this year reached its highest level yet, with women filling 39.1% of the newly created or vacated board seats, a significant increase compared to a rate of 35% last year. Among the S&P/TSX 60 companies almost one-third (33.2%) of the board seats are held by women, while among the companies included in the S&P/TSX Composite Index providing disclosure the corresponding figure is 31.5%. Few all-male boards remain - representing only 15.7% of the TSX-listed companies and two of the companies in the S&P/TSX Composite Index.

Perhaps one reason larger companies are more successful at adding female directors is that they are setting targets. Targets for women directors have been adopted by 71.7% of the S&P/TSX 60 companies. By contrast, only 32.3% of all TSX-listed companies have done so.

More than two-thirds (67.3%) of the time TSX-listed companies have adopted a written board diversity policies (64.7% in 2020) and approximately 90% of the time those policies included a specific focus on women on the board.

Women are also taking on greater leadership on the board. Approximately 6.6% of the TSX-listed companies have a women serving as chair of the board (5.2% last year) and at more than half of the companies (51.1%) a woman is serving as the chair of at least one committee of the board (compared to 43.5% last year).

Members of visible minorities also made some small inroads onto Canadian boards, as approximately 6.8% of board positions of CBCA corporations providing disclosure are held by visible minorities, compared to 5.5% last year.

Now, the bad news...

Women are making very little progress at the executive officer level. The proportion of women executive officers increased slightly to 18.2% from 17% last year, but is largely unchanged since 2015 (when it was 15%), and only 10.7% of TSX-listed companies have targets for women executive officers (largely unchanged from last year).

When it comes to Aboriginal peoples and persons with disabilities, the results are even more disappointing. Among the over 2,200 board positions of the 316 CBCA companies that provided disclosure, there were only 8 positions held by Aboriginal peoples (compared to 7 last year). Based on the disclosure provided, the number of director positions held by persons with disabilities also remained exceptionally rare, at only 9 positions (up from 6 last year).

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