Number of women on corporate boards edged higher to 12 per cent: report

TORONTO – A new report from a coalition of provincial securities regulators says the number of women who hold board seats at TSX-listed companies has ticked slightly higher to 12 per cent.

A year ago, women held 11 per cent of all board seats at the 677 companies listed on the Toronto stock market, according to the report.

The Canadian Securities Administrators says that’s an increase of 47 board seats.

The CSA report says there were 521 board seats that were vacated during the year.

Of those, 15 per cent — or 76 seats — were filled by women.

Ontario Securities Commission chairwoman and chief executive Maureen Jensen alluded to the report in her remarks to the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Tuesday, calling the results “disappointing.”

Jensen said board turnover is an opportunity for companies who are serious about increasing gender diversity to appoint women to those roles.

“Without an improvement here, we will never reach 30 per cent female board representation,” Jensen said. “Ever.”

The report found companies that have formal targets in place for how many women they would like to have on their boards tend to score better on gender diversity.

Companies with a formal policy in place had an average of 18 per cent female representation on their boards, while companies without such a policy averaged around 10 per cent.

“What gets measured gets done,” Jensen said Tuesday.

Securities regulators in every province and territory except for Prince Edward Island, Alberta and British Columbia implemented a “comply or explain” policy at the end of 2014.

The policy requires publicly traded companies to disclose certain statistics on the representation of women on their boards and in executive officer positions.

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