Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) introduced a five-year Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Strategy in February 2019. It was the first overt demonstration of our commitment to valuing, fostering and reflecting diversity and inclusion as essential elements of our organizational culture. We wanted to ensure our employees were part of an inclusive work environment where they could be themselves and use their diverse perspectives and skills to represent and benefit the people and the province of Ontario.

Critical components of OLG’s D&I Strategy were to increase diverse representation across the organization in terms of gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation and persons with disabilities and the creation of an inclusive work environment for all employees. In February 2020 OLG employees participated in a census to measure diversity and experiences of inclusion across the enterprise. The census highlighted OLG as an employer with diverse representation of Ontario’s demographic make-up, however it also identified a need for a greater emphasis on employee inclusion and equity.

After the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 sparked outcry in the USA and many other countries around the world for police reform and social justice for Black people, OLG took a stand to address racial inequity. In June, we held “Courageous Conversations” on racial inequity and became committed to working towards a more equitable and inclusive organization. We augmented our existing D&I strategy to include a focus on equity. This involved creating mentorship and career development planning programs to ensure equitable access to networks and recommitted to holding ourselves and each other accountable for the actions within the strategy.