In August, 181 U.S. CEOs signed onto the Business Roundtable’s Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, in which the CEOs committed to deliver value not only to a company’s shareholders but to all of its stakeholders, including its customers, employees, suppliers and communities. In the 2008 BCE case, the Supreme Court of Canada stated that directors have a “fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the corporation, viewed as a good corporate citizen”, and one of the June 2019 amendments to the Canada Business Corporations Act codified and expanded upon the BCE decision by indicating that when directors and officers act with a view to the best interests of a corporation they may consider, but are not limited to, the interests of: shareholders, employees, retirees and pensioners, creditors, consumers and governments; the environment; and the long term interests of the company. The Final Report of the federal government’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance issued a series of recommendations in June to assist Canada’s public and private sectors to accelerate Canada’s course toward a more sustainable, resilient and prosperous economy. This panel will discuss how the foregoing developments, in response to the turmoil encircling globalization, tie into the discussions proliferating at institutional investors and in corporate boardrooms today about environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Brian Burkett will be providing the introduction of the topic and Stephen Erlichman will be moderating the panel discussion.
This program contains 1 hour of Substantive content
