VANCOUVER—The leader of the B.C. Green Party, Andrew Weaver, announced Wednesday he will introduce a private member’s bill next week to provide legal protection for businesses pursuing social and environmental goals.

The bill has been drafted, and Weaver said he’s hopeful the B.C. Liberals and NDP will support it.

It would amend the Business Corporations Act to allow businesses to incorporate as “benefit companies” — meaning they pursue a “triple bottom line” of people, profits and the planet.

Businesses currently incorporated under the act have a responsibility to shareholders to maximize profits. The proposed legislation would allow businesses registered as benefit companies to be governed according to social and environmental aims, as well as shareholder profit.

Companies would need majority shareholder approval to become a benefit company under the act, Weaver said.

They’d also need to meet some requirements, like “putting benefit commitments in their articles, meeting standards of transparency, and reporting progress against an independent third party standard,” Weaver said.

Bernie Geiss, founder of North Vancouver insurance advisory company Cove Continuity, said the legislation would protect his company’s social commitments. Cove is a certified ‘B-corp’, meaning it has passed an audit by a third-party non-profit that affirms its commitment to transparency and social and environmental responsibility.

But some of the initiatives the company takes on could be challenged under the current law, Geiss explained.

“We’re concerned that we have a minority shareholder that comes in and says: ‘We don't like that you gave $100,000 away’,” Geiss said. “We want protection so that can’t happen.”

Laara Yaghujaanas, who runs an Indigenous business consultancy in North Vancouver, said the legislation could allow her clients “to establish corporations that have alignment with the values of the community.”

Yaghujaanas said she’s currently working with Tsilhqot’in Nation to set up a company, and is running into the common problem of trying to make the community-centred mission of the company fit within the legal framework of the Business Corporations Act.

“We’re hoping that this is something that we can take, and roll out, and be able to say: Here’s a corporate model now that actually works with and for First Nations,” she said, calling it “a new way of doing business.”

Read more:

‘Virtually impossible’ to ramp up oil and gas in Canada and hit climate targets, report warns

B.C. government ‘can’t have their cake and eat it too’: Green Party leader Andrew Weaver

Opinion | Thomas Walkom: Green election surge puts B.C. in centre of climate debate: Walkom

To take the legislation further, Yaghujaanas would like to see it directly acknowledge the Truth and Reconciliation call to action 92, which calls on the corporate sector to consult with Indigenous people and commit to inclusion of Indigenous people within company policies.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Weaver said the legislation, if passed, would encourage more B.C. companies to pursue social and environmental goals, and would put the province on the map as a leader in the global benefit corporation movement.

“Becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to champion benefit corporations is a huge opportunity to position the province as a leader and to send a signal to the market that British Columbia is open for business in the new 21st century economy,” he said.

Weaver said the legislation wouldn’t provide any tax benefits to benefit companies.

Alex McKeen is a Vancouver-based reporter covering wealth and work. Follow her on Twitter: @alex_mckeen

Read more about: