Accelerating Diversity on Canada's Boards

The evening consisted of dialogue around the issues of gender parity, existing barriers of entry for women, best practices and the differences in recruitment amongst Canada’s private and public boards.  In 2016, the Ontario government set a target that women should make up at least 40 percent of all appointments to every provincial board and agency by the year 2019. In response to this, the Council for Ontario and the CCMW felt it was important to engage and initiate conversations around gender diversity and the importance of having more women take a seat at the boardroom table.

A keynote speech was delivered by the Minister of the Status of Women and Minister responsible for Early Years and Child Care, The Honourable Indira Naidoo-Harris, MPP (Halton), who noted that the Women's Portfolio on the Council for Ontario and the CCMW "play important roles in promoting gender diversity and gender parity in our society".  Attendees also had the opportunity to speak with and learn from a diverse group of panelists including: Aretha Phillip, Manager, Public Appointments, City of Toronto; Sadaf Parvaiz, Director, Americas Inclusiveness Office, Ernst & Young LLP and Vandana Juneja, Senior Regional Director, Catalyst Canada. The interactive panel discussion was moderated by Sadia Zaman, Managing Director, Royal Ontario Museum.