Corporate Secretary

The Corporate Secretary promotes strong corporate governance practices and keeps up to date on evolving practices and trends in this field. They promote the role and responsibility of the Board of Commissioners both within the organization and externally.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the Corporate Secretary include, but are not limited to:

General

• Participate in Board and Board Committee meetings, including:
  • Supporting the Chair in ensuring effective Board functioning,
  • Ensuring the confidentiality of Board and Board Committee deliberations as appropriate,
  • Ensuring Board procedures are followed,
  • Ensuring any legislative, rules, and regulations are complied with, and
  • Coordinating correspondence, action items, and communications on Board and Board Committee issues and/or directives.
• Prepare and circulate minutes, and the details of the resolutions and decisions in order to ensure that proper action is taken by BC Housing as a consequence and that issues of broader implication are addressed.
• File resolutions as required, to be responsible for the creation, maintenance and retention of official corporate records, to act as a resource for corporate documents and other historical information and to arrange for updating of Board and policy information.
• Ensure that the Board Governance Manual and the Board online portal are up to date and contain the resource information needed by the Board of Commissioners to fulfil their duties.
• Secure and retain the services of the BC Housing Ethics Commissioner as required.

Governance Practices

• Keep current on evolving practices in corporate governance, particularly in the Crown corporation sector.
• Advise the Governance and Human Resources Committee and the Board on improvements that can be made to BC Housing’s governance framework on an ongoing basis as well as part of the annual review of the Board’s governance policies, procedures and practices.​​​​

Meeting Management​​​​​​

• Attend Board and Committee meetings, to act as secretary and organize minute taking responsibility at each such meeting that includes recording resolutions.
• Organize meetings, logistics, agendas, submissions, and briefing materials for the Board and committee meetings.
• Ensure records are at all times up to date.
• Ensure the Board has timely and all information needed to discharge their responsibilities.
• Draft reports and conduct research for the Board Chair and CEO as required.

Board Support

• Manage the Board budget, review and ensure the effective administration of Board expenditures including compliance with Remuneration Directives, and expense entitlements.
• Administer remuneration and compensation to the Board of Commissioners.
• Ensure Commissioners are apprised of and sign relevant documents pertinent to the role of Board members, e.g., BC Housing’s Standards of Conduct.
• Provide service and advice to both the Board and senior management to ensure theirs is an effective relationship, including:
  • Arranging orientation to new Commissioners;
  • Keeping Commissioners informed of corporate, legal and fiduciary responsibilities;
  • Obtaining information from Commissioners for legal and regulatory compliance;
  • Having a thorough and broad understanding of BC Housing and its operations;
  • Advising senior management on Board materials and presentations;
  • Promoting training and education; and
  • Managing board evaluation process.
• Provide advice to the Board, as appropriate, on steps that can be taken to support and maintain good government and stakeholder relationships, e.g., Ministry and sector group representatives.