Rima Ramchandani says CBCA Amendments to Expand Diversity Disclosure to Other Unrepresented Groups

Partner Rima Ramchandani has spoken with Canadian Lawyer on the amendments to Bill C-25, specifically about the diversity component.

The amendments are aimed at aligning between the CBCA and Canadian securities laws, TSX rules and certain international best practices.

Rima told Canadian Lawyer “the most significant difference to the CBCA amendments versus the securities laws is expanding the categories” of diversity, which will now expand to other underrepresented groups like visible minorities, Indigenous peoples and people with disabilities.

“The other big difference is that under securities laws, venture [i.e., smaller] issuers don’t have to comply with securities rules for diversity disclosure, but they would have to comply with the CBCA rules,” Rima said.

Rima said in Canada there were large institutions that had been “early adopters of best governance practices” however the same couldn’t be said for smaller-cap issuers.

“At a high level, there was certainly some improvement,” Rima told Canadian Lawyer.

“There was some uptick in issuers adopting policies, and a number of issuers that had no women [on boards or senior management] have at least one woman now. But I would say it’s been modest progress.”

You can read all of Rima’s comments on the Canadian Lawyer website.

Rima co-authored a bulletin on this topic called “CBCA Reforms Receive Royal Assent” which, discusses more of the detail.