Call 8 asks governments in Canada to enact legislation that would increase Indigenous representation on both public and private sector boards. The most significant legislative action to date is Bill C-25, which amended the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA) to require federally incorporated distributing corporations to disclose information about the representation of Indigenous Peoples, women, racialized people, and people with disabilities on their boards and in senior management. This disclosure regime, in effect since January 1, 2020, follows a “comply or explain” model rather than imposing mandatory quotas or representation targets.
Five years of data under this framework shows limited progress. Corporations Canada’s 2024 annual report found that Indigenous Peoples hold just 0.5 percent of board seats on federal distributing corporations, and that 69 percent of those corporations have no Indigenous representation on their boards at all. These figures have remained essentially flat since tracking began in 2020, suggesting that disclosure requirements alone have not been sufficient to drive meaningful change. On the public-sector side, the federal government’s Governor-in-Council appointments process has been more proactive, with 8.1 percent of current appointees identifying as Indigenous. However, no jurisdiction in Canada has enacted legislation that mandates Indigenous representation on boards, whether through quotas, minimum seat requirements, or binding targets.