With disclosure on the decline in Canada, is the commitment to DEI still there? – Canadian HR Reporter With disclosure on the decline in Canada, is the commitment to DEI still there? – Canadian HR Reporter

This year marked the first time in over a decade that Canadian public companies disclosed less information about their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives than the previous year, according to Osler’s 11^th annual Diversity Disclosure Practices report.

John Valley, Chair of Osler’s Corporate Governance practice and a co-author of the report, tells Canadian HR Reporter that some of the decline in disclosure was for “those [metrics] that are non-numeric and relate more to policies and practices within the organization.”

In spite of significant pushback against DEI programs in some corners and an overall drop in disclosure, John says, the push for more diversity in corporate Canada remains strong.

“For a number of issuers, and when we talk to institutional shareholders, they are still focused on diversity because they are looking at things like demographics and talent pipelines and wanting to ensure that they are identifying and developing the next generation of talent.”

That points to the underlying business incentive and the desire to shore up long-term strategy in continuing to support diversity efforts.

“Part of the reason business leaders continue to be focused on diversity-related initiatives is a concern about wanting to make sure that they are able to draw from the broadest possible talent pool, to identify the best-performing individuals,” John explains.

“[Companies] are stopping and looking at [things like], ‘What is it we need to do long term? We want the best possible people. Well, are there things we need to do to help make sure that we are able to draw from the broadest possible talent pool?’”

Aware of how the broader discourse around DEI has changed in recent years, many companies have repositioned their disclosure to emphasize how diversity benefits the business.

“In other words… they may be changing how much they’re saying and some of the nomenclature, they’re not necessarily changing the core of what they’re doing,” John says.

“People are taking a business-first approach to thinking about the disclosure.”

You can read the full article, “With disclosure on the decline in Canada, is the commitment to DEI still there?,” on the Canadian HR Reporter website.