New standards guidance document published for Government of Canada’s 50 – 30 Challenge

Organizations aiming to become more diverse and inclusive can now access new guidance to help them. The Standards Council of Canada (SCC), working with the Ted Rogers School of Management’s Diversity Institute and with support from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), has published a guidance document, in the form of a Publicly Available Specification (PAS), to aid organizations in the first steps of implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices within their businesses through the 50 – 30 Challenge.

The 50 – 30 Challenge was initiated in December 2020 between the Government of Canada, business, not-for-profits, the public sector, and diversity organizations to improve access for under-represented groups to positions on corporate boards and in senior management. Given that many working Canadians continue to experience discrimination despite increased efforts around diversity and inclusion, the initiative has received high levels of participation, with nearly 1,400 organizations signing on.

The Challenge sets two goals for the boards and/or senior management of each participating organization: gender parity (50 percent) and significant representation of under-represented groups (30 percent). Under-represented groups include visible minority persons, people living with disabilities, members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, which includes First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

SCC engaged the Diversity Institute to facilitate the development of the guidance document through a series of consultations with over 400 experts to establish key terms and definitions for measuring diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The document builds on national and international knowledge and best practices to provide common language for organizations participating in the 50 – 30 Challenge.

“We are proud to champion the development of this important guidance document,” said Chantal Guay, CEO of SCC. “Aligning key terms and concepts is the first step to advancing diversity and inclusion within business environments and ensuring uptake in a measurable way.”

“It has been exciting to see such a strong level of interest from Canadian organizations for advancing diversity and inclusion through the 50 – 30 Challenge,” said the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “By providing this type of guidance, we believe that even more organizations will feel empowered to take concrete action in bringing more diverse voices to the table, and to build a corporate Canada that looks like Canada.”

“This document was truly a collaborative effort,”: said Wendy Cukier, Academic Director of the Diversity Institute. “We hope the PAS will assist organizations in moving beyond words to action in advancing representation in the leadership of equity-deserving groups. It offers evidence-based measures in governance and leadership, human resources, workplace culture, metrics, value chain and partnerships to support integrated strategies to foster positive change."

The Publicly Available Specification is available for download to any organization and interested participants can also sign up for the 50-30 challenge.