News Releases

TORONTO, ONTARIO, March 23, 2010 - Canadian employers are making significant progress in improving diversity, inclusiveness and accessibility in the workplace, not just in major centres but in communities large and small and across a much broader range of industries. The winners of the 2010 " Canada's Best Diversity Employers" competition were announced today, chronicling a remarkable array of initiatives and best-practices designed to promote inclusiveness across a variety of employee groups.

"We've seen a marked improvement in diversity initiatives this year by employers across the country in a wider range of industries," says Richard Yerema, Managing Editor of the Canada's Top 100 Employers project, which oversees the annual selection process. "This isn't a big-city story anymore, nor is it confined to a few industries. The diversity initiatives we've seen this year are broadly based, with the result that we have a larger list of winners with stronger stories than in the past."

The list of winners this year consists of 45 employers from across Canada, that have developed best-in-class diversity and inclusiveness programs for five major employee groups: (a) women; (b) members of visible minorities; (c) persons with disabilities; (d) Aboriginal peoples; and (d) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered / transsexual (LGBT) peoples. Now in its third year, the competition is managed by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which publishes the annual guide to Canada's Top 100 Employers, in partnership with BMO Financial Group and TWI Inc.

"We are tremendously pleased to see the competition raising the bar for employers across Canada," says April Taggart, Senior Vice-President of Talent Management & Diversity at BMO Financial Group. "For nearly two centuries, BMO has helped build communities across Canada and, in this time, we've seen that organizations that reflect the communities they serve are almost always the ones that succeed. For us, diversity and inclusiveness are core values that go to the heart of everything we do. It's how we've built our company and remains a source of strength for us as we go into our next century. With today's announcement, we want to encourage employers across Canada to spend some time looking at these best-practices, to see how they can improve diversity and inclusiveness in their workplaces."

"Inclusiveness is increasingly seen as a core value by the nation's leading employers," says Trevor Wilson, President of TWI Inc. "These organizations realize that, to compete effectively in the future, they need to create an inclusive environment for all employees. With the approaching demographic crunch, this no longer is about just doing the right thing - it's a matter of ensuring that your organization can attract the best and brightest talent available.

Winners of the Canada's Best Diversity Employers competition are chosen by Mediacorp's editorial team, based on applications submitted to the annual Canada's Top 100 Employers project. This year, more than 2,600 employers started the application process, which was reduced to just over 300 short-listed employers for the diversity competition. The editors reviewed each employer's diversity and inclusiveness programs to determine how their initiatives compared to those of other employers in the same field and region. Mediacorp editors were assisted in the review process by the diversity consulting firm TWI Inc., which is the developer of an industry-recognized diversity measurement methodology, called The Equity Continuum. BMO Financial Group funded the costs of the competition and, as sponsor, was not considered for the award. BMO and TWI did not take part in the final selection of winners, which was left to the Mediacorp editors to decide on the basis of the applications submitted.

Details, explaining why each of the winners was chosen, were published this morning online at http://www.CanadasTop100.com/diversity - the full list of 2010 winning employers is attached.