BMO Financial Group has been named Canada’s Best Corporate Citizen of the Year by magazine Corporate Knights.

The ranking is based information from the Corporate Citizens Database, which contains “publicly available responsible business indicators determined with support from Industry Canada.”

BMO Financial Group edged ahead of Shoppers Drug Mart by excelling in five areas:

  1. CEO pay –although the bank pays its CEO, Tony Comper $7.47 million, this is fair relative to the company’s 2004 income before tax which amounts to $3.42 billion dollars;
  2. Key executive gender diversity — 26% of BMO’s executive team are female, making it one of just seven companies on the S&P/TSX 60 which top the 25% glass ceiling;
  3. Pension fund surplus — BMO has a pension fund surplus of $32 million for 2004 and assumes a 6.7% rate-of-return for its plan assets, 58 basis points more prudent than the average expected return assumed by S&P/TSX 60 companies;
  4. % of tax paid — BMO pays all its taxes (five out of six S&P/TSX 60 companies do not) pouring $1.947 billion in cash taxes into government treasury in 2004; and
  5. Number of federal lobbyists – Of the 53 lobbyists that the ‘Big Five’ banks have registered with the Federal Lobbyist Registry, BMO accounts for only three.

“If the corporate responsibility movement wants to be taken seriously they have to apply the same rigour and transparency that financial analysts use to determine what makes a good investment,” says Corporate Knights editor, Toby Heaps.

He adds that, “Besides creating jobs and powering the economy that makes our high standard of life possible, a responsible company pays its taxes, covers its pension fund, reduces its toxic releases, and doesn’t poke its nose too often into politics. This is the first time that a survey lays all this information bare point by point.”

Past award winners include Zenon Environmental Inc. (2002 and 2004) and Alcan Inc.