The Canadian Institute's 10th Annual Forum on Crown Corporate Governance

Registration Opens and Coffee is Served

Opening Remarks from Co-Chairs

Innovative Approaches to Resolving an Age- Old Challenge: Understand Roles and Master Communication Strategies to Manage Complex Relationships

Learn to effectively identify roles and responsibilities of management, board members and government, and seamlessly manage these relationship dynamics to foster cooperation, progress and the growth of your organization.

• Understanding the roles of the Minister, the Ministry, the CEO and the Board, detailing accountability lines and expectations between these parties
  • Learn how to gain a clearer understanding of the Ministry’s mandate
  • Develop strategies to achieve clarity on expectations and rules of engagement
  • Proven best practices to build solid, co-operative working relationships with the Ministry and increase trust in your day-to-day operations with Government staff
• Communication is Key: Strategies on how to –
  • effectively communicate with political and public service staff of the Ministry, and
  • accurately assess parties’ true, not perceived, needs
• What to do if Ministries overstep their “arms-length” status on the operational front; how to address these concerns in your Crown corporation

Networking Coffee Break

Succession Planning: Identifying and Developing Your Next Management Team and Board

• Lessons Learned: Obtaining invaluable stop-gap measures to temporarily fill these positions pending government approval
  • Practical solutions for overcoming challenges with recruitment and Ministerial buy-in
• The impact vacant board positions have on the operation of the Crown corporation – what proactive steps can management take to overcome these challenges
• Checklist of factor in choosing the most suitable recruiting firm to assist with this task, and ensure you are informed of the benefits of different approaches to board recruitment
• Develop unique strategies to maintain diversity on boards, in particular, increasing recruitment of women
• Detailed review of the effect of political interference in selecting board members, how to return the focus of board appointments to a skills matrix and filling competency gaps

Planning in Extreme Circumstances:

• Important considerations regarding creating a fair and transparent process of evaluating the CEO or Chair
• What to include when drafting a suitable action plan to replace CEO in the event of extreme circumstances with minimal risk to performance of the Crown corporation
• Detailed strategies to plan for successive candidates and learn essential considerations when engaging a recruitment firm on retainer for immediate replacement candidates

Networking Luncheon for Speakers and Delegates

Elevating Education of Board Members, Management and Ministerial Staff – Status Quo is Missing the Mark

There is a steep learning curve for new CEOs, board members and Ministry staff when starting out. Build an essential tool-kit to ease this initial transition, bridge the competency gap to allow members and staff to hit the ground running.

• Step-by-step guidance to developing the proper orientation and on-boarding courses for new board Chairs and C-suite executives
• Proactive strategies to accurately identify and resolve competency gaps on your board
• Examples of how to effectively utilize your education budget to achieve these goals
• Key factors necessary to analyze the importance of the role of ministry staff in:
  • Appropriately briefi ng the Deputy Minister or Assistant Deputy Minister
  • Assisting effective prioritization of issues with the Deputy Minister or Assistant Deputy Minister
• How to create an effective internal process to address:
  • high turnover,
  • increasing transparency,
  • filling talent gaps and
  • holes in management

Enterprise Risk Management 101 for Crown Corporations

To thrive in today’s highly regulated and complex business environment, Crown corporations must do more than anticipate, understand and manage a broad spectrum of risk. The challenge is to develop the capacity to identify the opportunities that come from informed risk-taking.

• Develop the most strategic ERM to help you achieve your organization’s objectives by addressing the full spectrum of its risks and managing the combined impact of those risks
• Learn how to determine what is an acceptable level of risk exposure for your agency
• Learn what controls should be implemented to help monitor your risk environment on an ongoing basis
• Gain a practical guide to risk assessment within your Crown corporation

Networking Coffee Break

Risk Management: Gauging the Implications of OSFI’s New Guidance on Crown Corporations

OSFI’s new corporate governance guidelines apply strictly to financial institutions; however, there is an undercurrent that indirectly raises the bar for Crown corporations. Join us for a detailed overview of the OSFI guidelines, an analysis of what they mean for the future of Crown corporation transparency and compliance, a discussion of their impact on enterprise wide risk management, and how to prepare to be in “compliance” with the expected new norm.

• Analysis of how these guidelines may influence risk management in Crown corporations
• Enterprise risk management:
  • Top strategies used to incorporate risk management within a governance framework
  • Solutions to overcome challenges in establishing a comprehensive framework to manage risk and proactively identify new risks
• Learning the importance of establishing your company’s risk tolerance and appetite
  • Practical strategies to implement early on
• Discussions of where can boards find additional guidance on what proactive risk management tasks should be addressed in their organization

Closing Remarks from Co-Chairs

Forum Adjourns

Coffee is Served

Opening Remarks from Co-Chairs

Managing Realities and Perceptions of Agency Conduct and Performance

• Identifying the big reputational risks
• What can the CEO and Board do to effectively address the negative pressure surrounding issues such as compensation; practical steps to mitigate this risk
• Establishing ethical leadership and how to proactively influence the narrative
• Incorporating the appropriate public reporting structure, accountability, transparency, and performance framework that is right for your agency
• Best practices in establishing codes of conduct
• How to address and repair public distrust created by a few isolated incidents whether real or perceived: Dealing with the pervasive nature of this general distrust and establishing transparent day-to-day business operations to help mitigate the impact on your agency

• Lessons Learned: Essential considerations and challenges to establishing ethical leadership
• Discussion of effective public reporting structure, accountability, transparency, and performance framework that is right for your agency; what has worked for OLG
• Top strategies to address public distrust and how to best mitigate this risk

Networking Coffee Break

Step-by-Step Guide to Assessing Director and Officer Liability Insurance Requirements and Implementing an Action Plan

• Determining special considerations for directors of Crown corporations: what insurance is required, if any?
• Detailed analysis of the Crown’s position on D&O insurance and the implications of non-compliance with this mandate
• Assessing whether to adopt rules limiting the external activities a board member:
  • What are the implications
  • Weighing the effect of choosing various forms of prohibition

Essential Strategies to Facilitate On-boarding of Your New Legal Counsel

• Determining the role of the legal department regarding communication between parties at various levels, including:
  • political,
  • bureaucratic, and
  • corporation
• Essential guidance on your role as in-house counsel, fundamental dialogue with your peers and strategies to accurately select and engage external counsel

Closing Remarks from Co-Chairs

Conference Concludes 

* A light lunch will be provided for those delegates attendingthe workshop.