The Business Case for Supplier Diversity in Canada

Businesses owned by women and minorities are vital to Canada’s economic prosperity. Diverse, well-developed supply chains can help these companies reduce costs, enhance innovation, successfully integrate acquired businesses, and reach new markets. However, many of these businesses have had difficulty gaining access to the supply chains of leading Canadian businesses and government organizations. Reinforcing this challenge is the fact that the benefits of diverse supply chains are not widely known in Canada, even though they create a win-win opportunity for both the supplier and the producer.

Supplier diversity programs offer these enterprises the opportunity to grow through access to new or expanding supply chains. However, the growth of these programs in Canada has been slow. This briefing aims to advance supplier diversity in Canada by developing an evidence-based business case that can be used to raise awareness about the benefits of diverse, well-developed supply chains, which are vital for businesses and Canada’s economic prosperity.