Opinion: Open letter from Canadian business leaders
Opinion: Open letter from Canadian business leaders
Chief Executive Officer, BMO Financial Group
Darryl is Chief Executive Officer of BMO, the eighth largest bank in North America by assets, serving over 13 million customers across Canada, the United States, an…
Darryl is Chief Executive Officer of BMO, the eighth largest bank in North America by assets, serving over 13 million customers across Canada, the United States, an…
VIEW FULL PROFILE-
Minute Read
-
Listen
Stop
-
Text Bigger | Text Smaller
Darryl White, CEO of BMO Financial Group, recently joined other CEOs of large Canadian companies in a commitment to do their part to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
First published in The Globe and Mail, on March 16, 2020.
An open letter from Canadian business leaders.
The organizations and employers we represent compete fiercely every day. Today we stand united in a shared battle against COVID-19.
We urge every leader in the country to immediately shift focus to the singular objective of slowing the pace of transmission of this coronavirus.
International experience demonstrates that social distancing is the only effective method, and is in the best interests of our employees, their families and our communities.
While this will have significant economic impact on our businesses in the short term, it is critical to weathering this storm and will hasten the recovery.
Governments across the country have acted yet these measures will only be effective if all employers step up and do their part to protect the nation’s health and welfare.
The undersigned have taken important steps and urge your organizations to join us:
-
Urge your employees to stop all non-essential travel, whether for personal or business reasons. Travel exposes people to infection, increasing risk for their personal and professional contacts.
-
Enable your employees to practise social distancing. Facilitate work-from-home for all non-critical business functions. Work with government, if necessary, to ensure sick pay for workers. Cancel any in-person gatherings or events. Ensure that mental-health services are in place to support those in need during a period of social isolation.
-
Maintain essential services to Canadians. In co-ordination with government, develop clear guidelines to protect the health of employees who provide critical services to the public.
Understand that your employees are looking to you for leadership and trusted information in turbulent times. Share trusted advice from public health agencies and communicate consistently and clearly with your employees. Recap the latest guidance and show them what you’re doing to support it.
On behalf of all of us, including millions of colleagues and employees, thank you to all healthcare workers on the front lines on whom we are relying to help us through this emergency. We have enormous respect and gratitude for your efforts.
Wendy Andrushko President DuPont Canada
Ayman Antoun President IBM Canada
John Baker President and CEO D2L
Scott Balfour President and CEO Emera
Mark Barrenechea Vice Chair and Chief Executive Officer OpenText Corporation
Kevin Beingessner Chief Executive Officer Coril Holdings
Scott Bell President and Managing Director General Motors of Canada
Kilian Berz Managing Director and Senior Partner The Boston Consulting Group
Mirko Bibic President and CEO BCE Inc. and Bell Canada
Charles Brindamour Chief Executive Officer Intact Financial
John Chen Executive Chairman and CEO BlackBerry
Neil Chrystal President and CEO Polygon Homes
Donald Clow President and Chief Executive Officer Crombie REIT
Dean Connor President and CEO Sun Life
Guy Cormier President and CEO Desjardins Group
Ben Cowan-Dewar Co-Founder and Managing Director Cabot Links
Keith Creel President and Chief Executive Officer Canadian Pacific Railway
Stephan Crétier President & CEO Gardaworld
Neil Cunningham CEO and President Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP)
Rola Dagher President Cisco Systems Canada
Thomas d’Aquino Founding CEO Business Council of Canada
Dennis Darby President and CEO Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters
Dax Dasilva Chief Executive Officer Lightspeed POS
Daniel Daviau President and CEO Canaccord Genuity Group
Marc de La Bruyère Managing Director Maclab Development Group
Charles Deguire President Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder Kinova
Paul Desmarais III Chairman and CEO Sagard Holdings
Paul Desmarais Jr. Chair Power Corporation of Canada
Victor Dodig President and CEO CIBC
Ian C. Dundas CEO Enerplus
Ian Edwards President and CEO SNC-Lavalin
Charles Emond President and CEO Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)
Dawn Farrell President and Chief Executive Officer TransAlta Corporation
David Filipchuk President and Chief Executive Officer PCL Constructors
Chris Fowler President & CEO CWB Financial Group
Gordon J. Fyfe CEO British Columbia Investment Management Corporation
Louis Gagnon President Mercer U.S. and Canada
Sabrina Geremia Country Director Google Canada
Russ Girling President and CEO TC Energy
Tim Gitzel President and CEO Cameco
Blake Goldring Executive Chairman AGF Management Limited
Roy Gori President and CEO Manulife Financial
Christine Healy President and Chief Executive Officer Total E&P Canada
Andrew Hider Chief Executive Officer ATS Automation Tooling Systems
Blake Hutcheson President OMERS
Goldy Hyder President and CEO Business Council of Canada
Gord Johnston President & CEO Stantec
Michael Katchen Founder and Chief Executive Officer Wealthsimple
Faisal Kazi President and Chief Executive Officer Siemens Canada
Hassan Khosrowshahi Chairman Persis Holdings Ltd.
Jeff Kinnaird President Home Depot of Canada
Patrick Lamarre President Kiewit Canada Group
Michael Latimer CEO OMERS
Don Lindsay President and CEO Teck Resources
Stephen Liptrap President and Chief Executive Officer Morneau Shepell
Mark Little President and Chief Executive Officer Suncor Energy
Jon Love Chief Executive Officer KingSett Capital
Marcelo Lu President BASF Canada
Elio Luongo Chief Executive Officer and Senior Partner, Canada KPMG LLP
Dr. Mark Machin President and CEO CPP Investments
Chuck Magro President and CEO Nutrien
Nicolas Marcoux Chief Executive Officer and Senior Partner PwC Canada
Bharat Masrani Group President and CEO TD Bank
Michael McCain President and CEO Maple Leaf Foods
Mike McDerment Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Freshbooks
David McKay President and CEO Royal Bank of Canada
Gordon McKenzie President and Chief Executive Officer Canpotex Limited
John McKenzie Interim CEO TMX
Al Monaco President and Chief Executive Officer Enbridge
Andrew Moor President and CEO Equitable Bank
Doug Murphy President and Chief Executive Officer Corus Entertainment
Joe Natale President and Chief Executive Officer Rogers Communications
Jeffrey Orr President and Chief Executive Officer Power Corporation of Canada
Rob Peabody CEO Husky Energy
Kevin Peesker President Microsoft Canada
John Peller Chairman and CEO Andrew Peller Limited
Rob Penner President and CEO Bison Transport
Cole Pinnow President Pfizer Canada
Sam Pollock Chief Executive Officer Brookfield Infrastructure Partners
Brian Porter President and CEO Scotiabank
Alex Pourbaix President and CEO Cenovus Energy
Ricardo Prosperi President, Canada Tenaris
Dani Reiss President & Chief Executive Officer Canada Goose
Michael Rencheck President and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Power
Hartley Richardson President & Chief Executive Officer James Richardson & Sons Limited
John Risley Chairman and Chief Executive Officer CFFI Ventures
Jean-Jacques Ruest President & Chief Executive Officer CN
Jeffrey Russell President, Canada, and Senior Managing Director Accenture
Steve Sammut President and CEO Rocky Mountaineer
Lino Saputo Jr. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Saputo
George Schindler President & Chief Executive Officer CGI Group
Sam Sebastian Chief Executive Officer Pelmorex Corp.
Bradley Shaw Chief Executive Officer Shaw Communications
Jad Shimaly Chairman and Chief Executive Officer EY Canada
Ian D. Smith CEO Clearwater Seafoods
Geoff Smith President and CEO Ellis Don
Stephen Smith Chairman and Chief Executive Officer First National Financial
David Smith Chief Executive Officer Keyera Corp.
Nancy Southern Chair and CEO ATCO Ltd.
Ronald Stern President and Chief Executive Officer Alberta Newsprint Company
Sandra Stuart Group General Manager, President and CEO HSBC Bank Canada
John Sullivan President and Chief Executive Officer The Cadillac Fairview Corporation
Garrick Tiplady Managing Director Facebook and Instagram Canada
Guy Turcotte Founder President and CEO Stone Creek Resorts
Louis Vachon President and CEO National Bank of Canada
Nicole Verkindt Founder and Chief Executive Officer OMX
Anthony Viel Managing Partner and Chief Executive Deloitte Canada
Galen Weston Executive Chairman Loblaw Companies
Darryl White CEO BMO Financial Group
Penny Wise President 3M Canada Mark Wiseman Founder FCLTGlobal
Mary Ann Yule President and CEO HP Canada
Jeff Zweig President and CEO Mosaic Forest Management
Darryl is Chief Executive Officer of BMO, the eighth largest bank in North America by assets, serving over 13 million customers across Canada, the United States, an…
VIEW FULL PROFILE