(July 10 – 11:55 ET) – The Dey committee on Corporate Governance in Canada recently reconvened to discuss the state of corporate governance in Canada, and today it released its concerns.
The committee remains concerned that the response to the original Dey committee recommendations “may have been more structural and more procedural than substantive”. It says, “the Canadian corporate community has not yet fully endorsed a ‘corporate governance culture'”, suggesting that this leadership needs to come from a non-executive board chair.
It also argues that major institutional shareholders have “a special responsibility to monitor and influence the quality of governance in Canadian corporations”.
The committee has several recommendations including: greater diversity in corporate boards; that “directors must act in an enlightened manner in addressing the interests of all stakeholders”; that the roles of the auditor and the audit committee should be reassessed; that good governance is as important for new economy corporations as it is for old economy corporations; and the latest data on governance should be analyzed to improve the understanding of corporate governance in Canada.
Peter Dey, who chaired the committee, commented “The Toronto Stock Exchange Governance Committee reconvened to discuss the question: Does Canada have a world-class system of governance? Our conclusion was that, although many boards responded positively to the 1994 initiative, we are concerned that the commitment to good governance has lost some momentum.”
Today the TSE also announced the formation of a new corporate governance committee under the chairmanship of Guylaine Saucier.
-IE Staff