EDC Named One of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers

(OTTAWA) – April 3, 2008 – Export Development Canada (EDC) was today named one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers by Maclean’s Magazine. EDC is the only Crown Corporation to have won the award.This award recognizes the nation’s leaders in workplace diversity and inclusiveness initiatives among several employee groups: women, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, aboriginal Canadians, and gay and lesbian employees. The selection was made by the editorial team for the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project.

“Diversity is a human resource principle at EDC, but it is also an operational advantage given the nature of our international work and the remarkably varied sectors and companies that we deal with,” said Susanne Laperle, Senior Vice-President of Human Resources, EDC.

As an export credit agency, EDC is inherently sensitive to cultural differences and a diverse workplace provides a distinctive business advantage. At EDC, embracing diversity means encouraging unique perspectives and creating an environment where all employees feel included and valued. Benchmarked against Canadian census data, EDC’s population for women, aboriginal people and persons with disabilities compares closely to the national representation.

EDC is Canada’s export credit agency, offering innovative commercial solutions to help Canadian exporters and investors expand their international business. EDC’s knowledge and partnerships are used by nearly 7,000 Canadian companies and their global customers in up to 200 markets worldwide each year. EDC is financially self-sustaining and is a recognized leader in financial reporting, economic analysis and has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for seven consecutive years.

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Media contact:

Phil Taylor
Corporate Communications
Export Development Canada
(613) 598-2904
ptaylor@edc.ca