Ontario sets target that 40 per cent of provincial board appointments be women

TORONTO – Ontario’s Liberal government wants women to make up at least 40 per cent of all appointments to provincial boards and agencies by 2019.

Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the target Tuesday, saying she would like to see other businesses and corporations follow the government’s example.

The government is “encouraging” businesses to set a target by the end of 2017 of women making up 30 per cent of appointments to their boards of directors.

More than half of Ontario’s post-secondary graduates are women, and women make up half of the province’s workforce, but as of last year, half of the businesses listed on the TSX have no women on their boards.

Ontario is establishing a committee, led by Finance Minister Charles Sousa and Tracy MacCharles, the minister responsible for women’s issues, to implement recommendations from a report on gender diversity on boards in Canada.

Wynne says “women set the standards for the world” and it is up to women in Canada to set the standards high.

“My whole life I’ve heard about women’s issues,” Wynne said in a speech. “They’re everybody’s issues, people, and they’re economic issues.”