(Quebec) Françoise David finds “staggering” the Legault government’s bill which establishes a firm parity zone on the boards of directors of state-owned companies, which would have the effect of forcing certain organizations to give up female directors, because there are too many of them.
“We’ve been waiting for a place for hundreds of years, and there are too many of us here? Come on. I find that mind-boggling, ”she said in a telephone interview.
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The Legault government tabled a bill on Wednesday which notably requires state-owned companies to have boards of directors in a “parity zone”. This zone is between 40% and 60% “of the total number of women and men who are members”. They will have a two-year transition period to adjust if the bill is passed.
In fact, many CAs find themselves in a situation where they have too many female directors, reported Press. According to a government report, 8 out of 47 CAs exceeded the maximum limit of 60% women in December 2020, the most recent data available.
At Hydro-Québec, for example, there are 11 women out of 16 members. At Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, there are 10 women out of the 14 members of the board of directors. Same situation at Loto-Québec, where there are 7 women out of 11 members. In all of these situations, the limit of 60% of the parity zone is exceeded.
The feminist activist, former co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire and former president of the Fédération des femmes du Québec deplores the government’s relentless “mathematical logic”. “I am very puzzled. It appears to be quite correct. People will say, “But Mme David, everyone must be equal. ” But if a group is historically discriminated against, why put a limit? Women have hundreds of years of public performance to catch up, ”she lamented.
Mme David, who speaks on his own behalf, believes it should instead include in the bill that CAs “must be at least 50% female.”
A law for all CAs
For his part, the former Liberal Minister Monique Jérôme-Forget affirms that Minister Girard, with his bill, does not tackle the real problem, namely the composition of the CAs of listed companies. She adds that the Charest government had already acted to force CAs to make more room for women. “He’s doing something that’s been around for 11 years. If he wants to do something brave, let him do it for all public companies, ”she notes.
Because Quebec and Canada have a lot of catching up to do in this sector. According to Statistics Canada data, in 2018, 5,128 women served on a board of directors, which represented 18.3% of all directors. Almost two-thirds of boards were made up entirely of men in 2017 and 2018.
In the National Assembly, the opposition parties are united in denouncing this article of Mr. Girard’s bill. “In a context where gender equality in Quebec […] is not yet reached[e], I think it’s a bad idea to put a cap on female representation on boards of directors, ”lamented the parliamentary leader of Quebec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, at a press briefing on Wednesday.
For Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, it makes sense to set a “floor” for the number of women for CAs, but not a “ceiling”. “We are in a society which is not yet egalitarian, so removing women from the board of directors, even if they are in the majority, and so much the better, it seems to me to be going in the wrong direction”, he said. said.
Liberal leader Dominique Anglade also believes that the government’s “priority” should be CAs where there are not enough women. “We have to get back into the mind of the legislator. The reason we want to have parity is to change the decades when there were not enough women on the boards, ”she said.
The PQ MP Martin Ouellet said for his part that the bar of “50% of women” is a “minimum” to be reached. “The more they want to get involved, the better. What we need right now is a floor, not a ceiling. ”