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Breckenhill Blog

April 16, 2019
Develop A Business Case For Gender Diversity
Kelly Cooper Kelly Cooper
Senior Consultant

Communications Expert
Conducting a gender gap audit can help an organization identify areas of concern, opportunities for improvement, and strengths on which to build. It can also help an organization to understand areas where it can make improvements to maximize gender diversity in the workplace. These findings can form the core of a business base highlighting reasons that attention to these issues will have positive impacts on the organization. This business case, specific to your context, can be used in discussions with senior management, staff, shareholders, and other stakeholders. It showcases the potential business advantages of the gender audit and can form the basis for conversations with management, staff and stakeholders.  [more...]
 
April 16, 2019
What Is A Gender Gap Audit?
Kelly Cooper Kelly Cooper
Senior Consultant

Communications Expert
A “gender audit” is a baseline assessment for companies that want to develop an understanding of where they stand on a range of gender-related issues. Depending on the company’s objectives, these indicators can include... [more...]
 
April 18, 2017
Nuclear Waste & Electricity Rates - In the shadow of a bright nuclear presence.
Trevor Shaw Trevor Shaw CPA, CA, CMC, CQA
Senior Consultant
Legislative Auditor
Nuclear energy accounts for about 60% of Ontario’s electricity. It is promoted as clean and efficient. Not so much in the limelight is the large amount of radioactive waste and the billions of dollars it costs ratepayers and taxpayers.  The prime purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the nuclear waste produced from nuclear generated electricity and the financial cost of managing the waste.   [more (pdf)...]
 
February 13, 2017
Need For Transparent Electricity System in Ontario - Change not only the rates but also the way the system is made transparent to the public.
Trevor Shaw Trevor Shaw CPA, CA, CMC, CQA
Senior Consultant
Legislative Auditor
In August 2015 I wrote an article about Ontario's hydro Debt Retirement Charges (DRC) as paid by hydro customers since the year 2000 and flow into the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation (OEFC).  It shed light on what this was and where $11.5 billion (now up to $13.4 billion as of March 2016) in such ratepayer charges went.  [more...]

September 12, 2016
Management Accountability Framework (MAF) - a Comparison With ISO 9001:2015
Trevor Shaw Trevor Shaw CPA, CA, CMC, CQA
Senior Consultant
Legislative Auditor
This analysis grew out of self-study.  It was motivated by a curiosity to understand how various governance/management frameworks (e.g. COSO, COCO, and others) are the same or different and perhaps finding potential for different frameworks to inform each other.   [more...]

March 31, 2016
CASL: One and one-half years later
Gary Dickson Q.C. Gary Dickson Q.C.
Senior Consultant,
Privacy Expert
Since CASL, Canada’s federal Anti-Spam law, has now been in force for more than a year and a half, it is appropriate to reflect on the first 18 months experience and consider what lies ahead for the direct email marketing industry in Canada. But first here is a brief history of CASL. [more...]

August 5, 2015
Ontarios's Hydro Debt Retirement - a Case for Transparent Governance
Trevor Shaw Trevor Shaw CPA, CA, CMC, CQA
Senior Consultant
Legislative Auditor
Have you ever noticed the line item on your monthly Ontario hydro bill called the “Debt Retirement Charge”?  This charge is not large- perhaps $2 to $15 a month - so who cares? - We can spend that on lunch and the bill has to get paid anyway if you want to keep the lights on.  Well, it is not exactly as advertised and adds up to billions of dollars for the Provincial treasury. [more...]

April 6, 2015
Governance Watching
Trevor Shaw Trevor Shaw CPA, CA, CMC, CQA
Senior Consultant
Legislative Auditor
Over the past few decades there have been more than a few “failures” that compelled efforts to strengthen governance (and/or management) of public and private sector institutions. Failures have had significant tragic human, economic, financial, reputational, social and environmental consequences. [more...]

August 26, 2014
Snooping By Health Care Workers Can’t Be Ignored
Gary Dickson Q.C. Gary Dickson Q.C.
Senior Consultant,
Privacy Expert
When Canadian provinces started rolling out stand-alone health information laws there was a confident assumption that health professionals would not abuse their access to personal health information. This meant that compliance efforts were focused on what might be called ‘soft safeguards’. This includes providing training, comprehensive policies and procedures and requiring individual oaths to comply with the law. These measures would be back-stopped by audit trails and the ability to identify improper viewing of patient information. [more...]

July 24 2014
Email Lists, CASL and Small Business
William (Bill) Wilson CISA, CGEIT William (Bill) Wilson CISA, CGEIT
CEO and Managing Partner
IT Governance, Audit and Privacy Specialist
Now that CASL has come into force, smaller businesses that do direct marketing via email are worried about how they bring their business into compliancy without spending a fortune. [more...]

July 13, 2014
Why Succession Planning Is Critical Now
Sylvie Plante Sylvie Plante
Senior Consultant, Facilitator and Project Manager
For more than a decade, Treasury Board, APEX and government executives across the country have identified Succession Planning as a priority, to manage risks associated with the departure of experienced leaders and loss of corporate memory. [more...]

July 10, 2014
Business Development Objectives, Responsibilities & Capabilities
Andrew (Andy) Oliver Andrew (Andy) Oliver
President and Managing Partner
The objectives of business development have not changed: building relationships, attracting new customers, opening new markets, and business growth.  But the strategies, execution, areas of knowledge, and skills required include new approaches to content, programs, and tools. Specifically a business development leader has the following responsibilities: [more...]