We work to
build strong
communities.

We make inclusion part of everything we do. Whether in our work environment or in our engagement with our portfolio companies and external managers, we rely on diverse perspectives, openness and collaboration to make the best decisions. We also pay close attention to the tax practices of the companies in which we invest, so that they benefit the communities where we do business.

46%

of our employees
are women

199

pre-investment opinions
on tax practices

26%

of our employees in Québec identify as a member of one of the following three groups:

  • Visible minorities
  • Ethnic minorities
  • Indigenous peoples

57%

of our actively managed
public companies count
at least 30% women on
their Boards of Directors

1

A culture
where talent
can flourish

In 2023, we unveiled our new employer brand. It encapsulates our conviction that working at CDPQ means taking concrete action to generate positive impacts for people, communities and the environment. It’s about being invested in the community.

This is illustrated by teams made of people with diverse backgrounds, and by an environment where each and every person’s unique contribution is valued. Openness to different perspectives is encouraged every day, in a work environment that facilitates excellence and collaboration.

CULTIVATING A DIVERSE WORK ENVIRONMENT

In our teams, diversity in gender, sexual orientation, background and age contributes to the quality of the work as well as our performance. This diversity on our teams is reflected not only in the 50 or so nationalities represented, but also in a wide range of ages (Figure 8).

Because DEI is at the heart of their convictions, our employees take part in various initiatives to promote and advance it at CDPQ. Several activities took place during the year, including:

  • Training for employees on how to foster an inclusive and equitable environment
  • A panel discussion titled Diversity, a Lever for Performance, which highlighted how innovation in organizations can be propelled by diversity

Since we make accessibility a priority, we also implemented an action plan to reduce barriers to welcoming and onboarding into the workplace the 4% of our employees who have disabilities.

Figure 8
A wide diversity of ages among our employees
Cultivating diversity

Our talents have four employee resource groups that provide opportunities for networking, development and exchange:

  • Les Investies – for women in investment
  • Carrefour Diversité – for colleagues from ethnocultural minorities
  • Fierté CDPQ – for the organization’s LGBTQIA2S+ colleagues
  • Femmes en tech – for women in technology

The year was marked by several activities:

  • Les Investies organized a panel discussion featuring three of our female executives in finance positions, who talked about their career paths and offered professional development advice
  • Carrefour Diversité held a launch event, where over 110 attendees gathered to discuss strategies for creating inclusive workplaces
  • Fierté CDPQ spearheaded two activities: to mark Pride Month, the stairs of the Jacques-Parizeau building were decked out in the colours of the rainbow flag, and more than 40 employees from CDPQ and its subsidiaries took part in the Montréal Pride Parade in August 2023
  • The Femmes en tech committee held a conference on women’s progress in the tech industry and talent development
Resource groups

Attracting and Developing our talent

Attracting, retaining and developing our talent is a priority. In the interests of attracting the best candidates and maintaining a diverse talent pool, we continuously improve our processes to counter bias, in particular through language neutrality in job postings and diversity on our selection committees. This approach applies to all job levels.

We also encourage our employees to provide regular feedback on their work experience through our surveys. In this way, we can continuously tweak our practices, offer the best conditions for their success, and ensure that each individual is working in an optimal environment.

To maximize career development, we also offer several growth levers, including:

  • A mentoring program to accelerate the development and attainment of professional goals. The 2023 cohort was made up of 54% women and 30% colleagues from ethnoculturally diverse communities.
  • The A Effect, a program designed to support women and propel them in their careers.

In 2023, 133 mentors supported 185 mentees, and 23 women took part in The A Effect.

Developing our talent

PROMOTING DEI AT ALL LEVELS OF THE ORGANIZATION

We have set targets in terms of ethnocultural and gender diversity, which we have already achieved or are in the process of achieving.

In our investment teams, 30% of the positions are held by women and 21% are held by colleagues who identify with the following groups: visible minorities, ethnic minorities or Indigenous peoples.

Furthermore, women now represent 46% of CDPQ’s Board of Directors, while 31% of its members reported that they represent the diversity of Québec society.

In addition, our Executive Committee has reached gender parity.

RESULTS AS AT DECEMBER 31, 2023
AMBITION FOR 2025
44%

of Executive Committee members are women

AMBITION FOR 2025
40%(target reached)
46%

of our employees are women

AMBITION FOR 2025
47%
30%

of our investment positions are held by women

AMBITION FOR 2025
34%
26%

of our Québec employees identify as members of one of the following groups: visible minorities, ethnic minorities or Indigenous peoples

AMBITION FOR 2025
26%(target reached)
Promoting DEI
2

Our approach to integrating social factors

We take social factors into account when analyzing investment opportunities just as we do in our post-investment monitoring. Whether talking about issues related to DEI, human rights or employee health and safety, we maintain a regular dialogue with our portfolio companies and external managers to create value and reduce risk.

PRIORITIZING SOCIAL ISSUES

Social issues are considered in our ESG analyses according to their materiality. We use the SASB grid as a guide for all these assessments. This may include analyses of issues such as workers’ rights, working conditions, health and safety, supply chain management and community relations. We also carry out due diligence on the company’s history. For more information on our assessment processes, see the Governance section.

Following each investment, we maintain an open dialogue with our portfolio companies. These discussions of social issues help enhance their performance.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We have developed a number of support tools that address social issues. Our guide Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Value Creation Drivers provides concrete ways to advance DEI in organizations. Among other things, it answers frequently asked questions about strategy and which initiatives to prioritize.

  • What are the pillars of a robust DEI strategy?
  • What initiatives need to be deployed, and how should they be prioritized?
  • How can progress be measured and reported?
HUMAN RIGHTS

To better address the question of human rights with our portfolio companies, we joined PRI Advance. The purpose of this initiative, supported by the United Nations (UN), is to advance the use of best practices for engagement, including dialogue. This enables us to collaborate with other institutional investors to provide solutions to systemic problems, such as inequality and discrimination.

Social issues
Chart 9
Actively managed public companies where women make up at least 30% of the Board

FOSTERING GREATER BOARD DIVERSITY

We place great importance on the composition of the Boards of our portfolio companies and external managers. Making progress in DEI in these organizations is key to integrating a variety of viewpoints into their decision-making and fostering a culture of inclusion. This stimulates innovation and business growth, while reducing risk.

In line with our Policy Governing the Exercise of Voting Rights of Publicly Listed Companies, we require having at least 30% women on the Boards of Directors of our public companies (Chart 9).

As at December 31, 2023, 57% of our actively managed public companies had at least 30% women on their Boards of Directors, representing an increase of almost 39% over three years.

Throughout 2023, we prioritized our engagement activities by helping raise awareness of the importance of DEI in the workplace among 28 portfolio companies and 71 external managers:

  • 11 of these companies and external managers made concrete commitments in this area.

To encourage action, we voted against the appointment of Board members in 268 companies that had less than 30% women on their Boards with no extenuating circumstances.

Board diversity

To promote diversity on the Boards on which we sit and strengthen their governance, we set the objective of having women represent 30% of our nominee directors by 2023.

During the year, we appointed 89 new nominee directors. Of these, 24 were women.

In 2023, we reached our target of women representing 30% of all our nominee directors.

Nominee directors
3

Our efforts
on adopting tax
best practices

We expect the companies in which we invest to comply with tax best practices. This is why we oppose any form of tax evasion or abusive tax planning. We diligently manage our portfolio to achieve this, and are one of the world’s most rigorous investors on this matter.

Each investment opportunity is analyzed according to the criteria of our International Taxation Commitment. This is in line with the recommendations of the OECD. We were one of the first institutional investors in the world to make such a commitment.

In 2023, our teams issued 199 pre-investment opinions to determine whether CDPQ should proceed with a transaction.

Of those opinions:

5

were unfavourable and led us to withdraw from the potential investment due to inadequate tax practices

2

went ahead following implementation of changes requested by our tax team to bring the deal in line with the criteria of our commitment

FOLLOW-UP ON THE 2022 REVIEW OF OUR ACTIVELY MANAGED INVESTMENTS BEING MONITORED

Following an in-depth analysis of the portfolio in 2022, our monitoring list included 11 companies that presented a risk of adopting tax practices that did not meet our expectations.

In 2023, we carried out a more in-depth review of these investments. We held discussions with members of the management of some of these companies to better understand their tax strategies and viable long-term effective tax rate. We also emphasized the importance that CDPQ places on tax matters. Based on these discussions, we concluded that:

10

could be removed from our monitoring list because they showed no indication of abusive tax planning, had already been sold in the normal course of our investment strategy or had been subject to a reorganization upon our request.

1

of them did not meet our criteria. We are continuing our dialogue with the company and continue to monitor it, as this is a non-liquid investment that CDPQ cannot dispose of unilaterally.

COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL REVIEW OF OUR ASSETS

In 2023, our teams once again assessed our assets from a tax point of view, based on the most recently available financial information, to identify those securities requiring in-depth analysis. During the year, we reviewed more than 2,900 investment files in the portfolio and conducted over 400 in-depth analyses to meet the criteria set out in our International Taxation Commitment.

As a result of these analyses, 14 new companies were placed on the monitoring list and will be closely monitored in 2024.

Case studies

Based in Mexico with operations throughout Latin America, the Sanfer pharmaceutical company creates and produces medications to treat various conditions, such as diabetes and cardiovascular issues. In 2023, the company adopted a concrete and robust ESG strategy that included the creation of a dedicated ESG team.

In order to provide Sanfer with the best possible support, we met with members of its management team on several occasions during the year, both in Mexico City and in Montréal. These meetings enabled us to share with them our convictions and recommendations on best practices for integrating ESG factors into their business strategy. Having seen the company make considerable progress in this area and publish its very first sustainability report, we will continue to work closely with Sanfer in 2024 to help it develop an improved and sustainable DEI strategy, a very important tool in Sanfer’s sector of activity.

Located in Sydney, Australia, MPark is an innovative mixed-use life science and technology campus. Developed through a partnership between Ivanhoé Cambridge and Stockland, one of Australia’s largest diversified real estate groups, the project includes a first phase of 37,000 m2 of carbon-neutral commercial rental space. As part of this project, Ivanhoé Cambridge has implemented a “green promote” structure, which ensures alignment with ESG performance indicators to incentivize the adoption of sustainability best practices.

In 2021, Stockland launched an inclusion and performance program in order to advance DEI, improve psychological safety and generate value for the entire MPark ecosystem. Since then, over 50 people from 14 companies, including tenants, architects, contractors and consultants, have participated in the project. Through a series of workshops held to support the program’s success, MPark established a team charter and agreed on performance standards. This helped create a more inclusive culture, improving team cohesion and ensuring consistency in the way it works with its stakeholders.

Led by Tishman Speyer and Breakthrough Properties, the Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) in Boston is an 83,600 m2 mixed-use development project. It will include two life science pavilions, two multi-family buildings, a hotel and accessible green spaces. The financing package, led by Otéra Capital, will bring together a syndicate of four lenders and is considered one of the largest construction loans granted in the U.S. in 2023.

At least 15% of the value of the construction contracts and 25% of the retail area will be awarded to businesses owned by women or people identifying as a visible minority. More than 150 people from the Black and Latin American communities are invested in the project. In addition, 25% of the residential units will be reserved for affordable housing, which represents the highest proportion of affordable housing in a single private construction project in the City of Boston. The project is targeting LEED Gold and Fitwel certifications.