Increasing Diversity in Business Leadership is Both the Right, and Smart, Thing to Do.

We know that anti-Black racism is real and that people are facing systemic discrimination, unconscious bias and anti-Black racism every single day. As a society, we need to stand together and stand up against discrimination. If we truly desire an inclusive Canada, we all need to step up, be allies, and do what we can to make workplaces, communities and public spaces safer.

I welcome the initiative from the Canadian Council of Business Leaders Against Anti-Black Systemic Racism to help ensure corporations follow through on their statements and take active steps to support Black employees and the Black community more broadly. The conversations that we have been having across Canada are important, but now we must turn those words into action.

Our government knows that business outcomes are better when the decision-making table reflects the diversity of Canadians. That is why we passed legislation that requires companies to disclose their diversity policies, including targets, to achieve more diverse senior management teams and boards. Having traditionally under-represented voices at the table isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do. We are pushing corporate Canada to rise to this challenge because diversity makes good business sense.

Our government is building a foundation for change. Gathering ethnographic data, above and beyond the census, is something that we have been actively working on, and on an ongoing basis, Statistics Canada continues to improve data collection processes and methodology to provide the timely disaggregated information policy-makers and society need. Through Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy, we are increasing the amount of reliable, usable and comparable data and evidence regarding racism and discrimination. And through our Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Statistics, we are increasing the availability of race and gender-based data for evidence-based policy development and decision making. We are also working in collaboration with the provinces on improved data sharing and collection.

We understand that the social and economic effects of COVID-19 disproportionately affect Canadians from different backgrounds. That is why, for example, as part of our ongoing commitment to providing Canadians with the best available data, Statistics Canada will pilot data collection on visible minority status in the Labour Force Survey beginning in July 2020.

We all have more work to do to address anti-Black racism in Canada, and our government is committed to doing that work.