Former N.B. Premier Releases Study On The Growing Social Conscience In The Business World
MONCTON – Keith McIntosh is one of six Atlantic Canadian business leaders that want to see businesses link the pursuit of profit with a sense of social purpose.
McIntosh, the founder and co-CEO of Fredericton-based PQA Testing, said he was pleased with the findings of the Canadian Voices on the Role of Business in Society report, which was co-authored by former N.B. Premier Brian Gallant and now CEO of the Canadian Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation.
“I was pleased with what they took out of what I was saying and the conclusions [they drew],” said McIntosh, whose software testing business trains and employs First Nations, Metis, and Inuit software testers across Canada.
McIntosh said it’s “about time” businesses started considering more than profit and start thinking about the broader social and environmental implications of their operation.
“It’s absolutely important that businesses have to take bigger ownership in doing the right thing,” said MacIntosh.
“It’s ironic you’re asking an hour after the province just had their press conference,” McIntosh added, alluding to the province’s response to the Wolastoqey Nation’s land claim.
The claim identifies five million hectares as traditional Wolastoqey lands and calls for compensation from the Crown and some of New Brunswick’s largest forest companies who operate on that land.
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McIntosh told Huddle he thinks the push for more social and environmental consciousness in business will come as more young people get into business.
“We have a long way to go but I do think, more and more, businesses are getting on board. It’s driven by a younger generation. This is what the next generation of leaders will want,” he said,
McIntosh was one of six Atlantic Canadian business leaders interviewed for the study – a number that includes McCain Foods CEO Max Koeune; Oxford Frozen Foods Ltd. CEO John Bragg; D.P. Murphy founder and owner Danny Murphy; Bernard Lord, a former N.B. premier current CEO of Medavie; and Vick Wallace Godbout, a lawyer and small business owner from Madawaska Maliseet First Nation.
McIntosh said people are obligated to leave the world a better place than they find it. It was a sentiment echoed by many survey respondents.
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The 84-page report, which involved interviews with 90 Canadian business leaders, outlined a growing desire among Canadian businesses to respect and become part of a culture that honours the environment, as well as correct societal inequalities and reconcile with traditionally marginalized groups like Canada’s Indigenous people.
In a call with Huddle, Gallant said his many interviews with Canadian business owners filled him with “cautious optimism.” He noted there are still disconnects between business, academia, and government that need to be bridged to work “in lockstep” on creating a more socially and environmentally conscious business world.
“A lot of people are recognizing that if they want to perform well in the long term, they have to be thinking about these things,” he said.
Gallant noted systemic changes will be needed to revamp the way business thinks about social causes. Making those changes can be difficult but can be achieved through collaboration.
“There are a lot of well-intentioned business leaders…and there are some systemic challenges. It’s like if someone wanted to change the rules of hockey. We’re all talking about change, and if someone were to want to stop checking…even if players on the ice agreed and stopped checking they may not be able to impact the decision and make the change,” said Gallant.
Gallant and report co-author Robert Greenhill, the president of Canada’s International Development Agency, managing director of the World Economic Forum, and executive chair of Global Canada, took the information they found and formed five recommendations.
Those include:
- A call for every Canadian business to have a clear purpose beyond making money;
- The call for business to align their key metrics with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals;
- That the Canadian business community collectively stand up to be counted, making concrete-timely commitments that are refined every three years;
- That Canadian business leaders help and develop and actively participate ins structured national cooperation and collaboration, and;
- That Canadian businesses should take a greater leadership role in global initiatives and organizations linking profit with purpose.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].