Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept embraced in Canada in multiple sectors with each having a variety of stakeholder groups. This chapter describes the multiple viewpoints about CSR according to the perspectives of different industries and how those perspectives influence the use and approach to CSR by Canadian firms. Founded in 1867, Canada has a short history but from the perspective of the indigenous people of Canada, the land has been settled for thousands of years. The arrival of European settlers approximately 500 years ago, and the establishment of businesses that extracted, processed, and traded natural resources destabilized an organizational system established by First Nations people that considered social responsibility and balance in the context of social and environmental stakeholders. However, the current dissonance of a natural resource extraction sector working within a culture of sustainability driven by global climate and societal changes is unique in a country like Canada and creates challenges for local firms to implement CSR. From today’s perspective of achieving CSR through sustainable goals (for example the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals), there are economic pressures on corporations to succeed using the available resources and contribute to a positive triple bottom line—creating economic, societal, and environmental value. At the rural level in Canada, firms are pushed towards sustainable farming methods with minimal environmental impact but high societal contributions. At the urban level in Canada, the influx of manufacturing and service corporations, increasing the pull of inhabitants to urban centres creates social, environmental and economic pressures that are difficult for municipalities to handle without the cooperation of corporations. This chapter focuses on the last ten to twenty years, where the paradox of living in a resource-rich country, is described from the perspective of what Canadian firms are doing at the corporate level and across industries to comply with institutional and societal pressures to improve their current CSR practices.