According to City Councillor Adam Vaughan diversity is the city that we are today. It’s what we encounter every day. “Diversity is not something you need to embrace,” he says. “Diversity is something that will embrace you.” While this may indeed be true, in his role as Chair of the Civic Appointments Committee, Vaughan has a firm hold on the value and necessity of having a leadership that reflects the demographic reality of Canada’s most diverse metropolis.
Following the 2006 election, the City took deliberate steps to address the under-representation of visible minorities on Toronto agencies, boards and commission. They created a new civic appointments process to do so and revamped their outreach and marketing strategies. Ad campaigns targeting ethnic and cultural newspapers were launched, a new database of diverse organizations was developed, presentations were made at specialized conferences, and a new brochure was created on diversity in public appointments for their website.
Recognizing that some of their pre-existing practices may have posed obstacles, they moved away from compulsory information sessions for prospective board members and adopted an online application.
The results? Applications increased from 515 to 1316 and the number of visible minority applications increased from 8% to 30%. Visible minority representation on boards increased from 21% in 2003/04 to 31% in 2007/08.
Vaughan speaks to the value of diverse leadership in referencing the success of one group, the Police Services Board: “It’s brought incredible amounts of education to the board, leading to better policing.”
