MLA Report

By Denise Savoie

Once again I was proud to host my annual celebration of International Women's Day in Victoria. Bringing together 200 women is a formula for lots of dynamic discussion and great ideas. I was also really pleased that ten local women artists agreed to display their work at the event.
This year's keynote speaker was Coro Strandberg who has made a career helping to bring corporate social responsibility (CSR) to Canadian boardrooms and workplaces, playing a key role in Dockside Green, Vancity Credit Union, Victoria Values-Based Business Network and numerous other forward-thinking companies.

I am a passionate supporter of an emboldened private sector, where conscientious businesses, spurred on by consumer demand, and dynamic leaders like Coro, champion a green economy.
I was inspired by the discussion of CSR, but I was also reminded of how much ground we have lost in the past decade, as successive federal governments leap on the bandwagon of 'voluntary regulation', limiting our ability to govern and infringing on public safety, environmental sustainability and economic security.

We have to remember that CSR is not a panacea and cannot replace the regulatory role of government. Former Prime Minister Joe Clark said recently that for too long we have had private interest governments, leaving a vacuum as government steps away from its role as guardian of the public interest.
The most recent global financial collapse should be a huge warning against deregulation, but political leadership is absent. Deregulation is still being championed by the Conservative government, as it was by the governing Liberals before them.

This affects all of us. Weakening of regulation means fewer food inspections, greater risk of listeria-type events, less scrutiny of toxic products or chemicals approved for circulation in our environment, and slower response to faulty cars, such as the safety problems that resulted in the recent Toyota recall. In cases such as the mega-yacht marina proposed for Victoria's harbour, we could be looking at the public interest being ignored entirely if government oversight and assessments are eliminated.

In 2002, the Canadian Democracy and Corporate Accountability Commission, co-chaired by Order of Canada recipients Ed Broadbent and Avie Bennett, released its final report, stressing that companies have responsibilities that extend beyond the maximization of shareholder returns, especially now that more than half of the world's 100 largest economies are corporations, not nation-states.

The commission's exhaustive consultation with governments, corporate executives, and civil-society activists concluded that the vast majority of Canadians desire a broader notion of corporate responsibility, taking into account human-rights principles, core labour rights, consumer projection and environmental standards, in Canada and with our trading partners overseas.
Corporate social responsibility makes great sense. But clearly CSR will only succeed if it is backed up by legislated regulation and political leadership that removes the incentive for corporations to give maximization of shareholder profit primacy over all other societal needs.