Civil Society Statement on CSR Counsellor

Government’s new Toothless Review Mechanism Underlines why Responsible Mining Bill C-300 is Necessary

Ottawa, October 26, 2010 – One day before the third and final vote in the House of Commons on Bill C-300, the government has launched its Review Process, a dispute resolution mechanism whereby the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor proposes to mediate between aggrieved communities and Canadian mining, oil, and gas companies.

Significant deficiencies render this mechanism inadequate to resolve serious community grievances: the dispute mechanism is voluntary in nature, lacks a transparent fact-finding function and will lead to neither recommendations to government nor to sanctions. Consequently, Bill C-300 remains an important piece of legislation.

CSO letter to World Bank President re CAO report on Bulyanhulu mine

December 12, 2002

Mr. James Wolfensohn
President
The World Bank Group
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433 U.S.A.

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn,

We are writing to express dismay at the recent Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman report on the MIGA guarantee of the Bulyanhulu gold mine and to request your urgent intervention.

The CAO is a mechanism that non-governmental organizations have pushed hard to establish. Your personal support for the initiative played a major role in ensuring that the CAO was established. As all parties have observed, the CAO's effectiveness rests on the respect and trust it enjoys amongst the public: integrity, transparency, even¬handedness and thoroughness are thus critical to all aspects of its work.

Compliance Officer (9) Environment Audit- June 15, 2004

June 15, 2004

Mr. Fraser Reilly-King
Halifax Initiative
153 Chapel Street, Suite 104
Ottawa ON KIN 1H5

Re: Compliance program file number 2236-4-1-2003

Dear Mr. Reilly-King:

This letter is a follow-up to my letter of May 7, 2004 and should serve as the conclusion of the Halifax Initiative complaint.

Your letter of complaint dated July 28, 2003 regarding the Cernavoda 2 nuclear power plant transaction came within EDC's compliance program. It was accepted and followed the compliance program process. A recommendation that a compliance audit be conducted was made to EDC Executive Management (Management) in October of 2003.

Management accepted the recommendation and the work was divided into two parts.

Press Release - Monday, March 26, 2007

Civil Society and Industry Representatives Agree on Good Overseas Practices

What: Groundbreaking Report on Canadian Mining, Oil and Gas Companies Released

Who:
Tony Andrews – Executive Director, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada
Gerry Barr – President-CEO, Canadian Council for International Co-operation
Catherine Coumans – Research Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada
Gordon Peeling – President-CEO, Mining Association of Canada

When: Thursday, March 29th at 10.00 am

Where: Charles Lynch Room, Centre Block, Parliament Hill

The final report from the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries will be released at a press conference on Thursday, March 29 at 10:00 am.

NGO WORKING GROUP ON EDC (February 2000) : Backgrounder on EDC and the Environment

Prepared by the NGO Working Group on the Export Development Corporation, a project of the Halifax Initiative

The Canadian Export Development Corporation (EDC) is the main source of publicly supported export financing in Canada, designed to complement the private financial sector wherever possible. A federal Crown corporation, EDC provides Canadian exporters with financing products to help their customers, and with commercial and political risk insurance, particularly for higher-risk and emerging markets. In 1998, EDC worked with 4,183 customers in 200 countries, helping Canadian companies to generate nearly $35 billion in sales and foreign investments.

Pages