Promoting equity at Hydro. (Ontario Hydro) (Employment Equity)

About the author...

Robert Franklin is former President and Chief Executive Officer of Ontario Hydro, and was recently appointed Chairman.

A senior executive's perspective on why employment equity is simply good business

Companies embrace the employment equity principle for a number of reasons. It is the right thing to do; it is long overdue; and it is required by law. All are valid grounds for committing to employment equity.

I'd like to offer another perspective. Practising employment equity is simply good business. In the end, that bottom-line, profit-oriented truth may give the employment equity issue the bite it needs to become a social reality.

By way of example, as Canada's largest public utility and one of the province's largest employers, Ontario Hydro has 28,000 regular staff in generating and distribution stations and in customer service and administrative offices across the province. At any given time, 6,000-7,000 temporary or construction contract employees are also working for Hydro.

Our projections tell us we will need 15,000 new employees in the 1990s alone. At the same time, the future labour market is shrinking. Ontario's low birth rate, like that in other …