Good morning, Speaker and colleagues. Today I rise to speak about my first private member’s bill, Bill 50, Building Better Business Outcomes Act. This bill would amend the Securities Act to require that publicly traded corporations develop and make publicly available their policy respecting their director nomination process to identify board candidates who are women, Black, Indigenous, other people of colour, persons with disabilities and LGBTQ+.

Good business policy is progressive policy and research shows that increased diversity on boards leads to better business outcomes. Diverse experiences and perspectives help businesses generate a broad array of solutions, manage risks and therefore be more successful.

I am happy to say this bill has the support of a wide range of stakeholders and organizations, and a number of MPPs have also already offered their support. If any of my colleagues are interested in learning more or meeting some interested stakeholders, I will be holding a Bill 50 social tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. Please contact my office for more information.

I look forward to speaking more about my bill next week. I am confident that growing our economy and improving and promoting diversity and inclusion is important to each member in this House because it’s a business issue, it’s a societal issue—not a partisan issue. I hope we can move forward together on this.