On September 28, 2015, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published CSA Multilateral Staff Notice 58-307 Staff Review of Women on Boards and in Executive Officer Positions – Compliance with NI 58-101 Disclosure of Corporate Governance Practices (Staff Notice 58-307). Staff Notice 58-307 summarizes the results of CSA staff's review of disclosure related to the "women on boards" initiative.
The staff review focused on 722 TSX-listed issuers and yielded helpful guidance for improving disclosure. CSA staff provide guidance on improving disclosure with respect to mechanisms of board renewal that the issuer has adopted; describing gender diversity policies and ensuring compliance of such policies with Form 58-101F1 Corporate Governance Disclosure; and improving disclosure of the representation of women in the director and executive officer identification and selection process among other areas. Staff Notice 58-307 also provides insightful statistics on the representation of women on boards and should be reviewed in detail by interested stakeholders.
As regular readers will recall, the "women on boards" initiative amended corporate disclosure obligationsin Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario and Quebec to require information with regard to the representation of women on boards of directors of non-venture issuers.
Staff Notice 58-307 was published on the heels of the publication of the inaugural Alberta Women on Boards Index which provides statistics on the representation of women on the boards of Alberta issuers.
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