This session I introduced a bill to enable BC companies to become benefit companies. Benefit companies pursue social and environmental benefits in addition to profit. Companies that take this triple bottom line approach are on the cutting edge of rethinking the role of business in the 21st century and helping us tackle our most pressing social and environmental issues. Government needs to support and encourage business to take on this role, and this bill is one way to do just this.

The proposed amendment to the Business Corporations Act will create a new Part 2.3 in the Act that enables companies to become benefit companies. These companies will have to meet certain requirements, including:

• Committing in their articles to operate in a socially responsible and environmentally sustainable manner, and to promote specific public benefits;
• The directors must act honestly and in good faith to pursue public benefits and consider the interests of persons affected by the company’s conduct
• Reporting publicly against an independent third party standard.

As part of the initiative to have BC adopt benefit company legislation, my office has written an open letter to Premier Horgan that we are encouraging business owners, employees, and individuals to sign. The text is reproduced below. To sign the letter and show your support for benefit company legislation, please go here.

Premier Horgan: Make BC the first jurisdiction in Canada to have benefit company legislation

The Honourable John Horgan
Legislature Buildings
501 Belleville Street
Victoria, BC
V8V 1X4

Dear Premier Horgan,

We strongly encourage you to pass benefit company legislation in BC.

This legislation would enable companies to incorporate as benefit companies with an explicit social or environmental benefit baked into their purpose through their articles.

Through adopting this legislation, BC could become a leader in supporting the innovative work of sustainable and responsible businesses.

This legislation would encourage the adoption of business forms that have an expanded social and environmental mission, and it would provide a legal framework that supports and protects businesses that choose to take on a broadened mandate.

This legislation would clarify the process of embedding a broader mandate within a company’s articles. It would provide certainty for investors and other stakeholders, looking to support mission-aligned companies, of the nature and the mandate of the company, and it would enable companies to attract capital while remaining true to their mission, even as they scale. Moreover, this legislation would provide a simple framework for companies to adhere to that is legally and commercially recognized.

Benefit company legislation has been passed in a number of other jurisdictions, including over 30 US states.

Through enacting this legislation, your government can play a significant role in better harnessing the power of business to help us, as a society, tackle the unprecedented challenges we face in the 21st century. We urge you to seize this opportunity.