For Immediate Release

PDF versions are available in the below links.

Issue brief on IFC and MIGA: "Private Sector and Lending and the World Bank Group."

Issue brief on EIR: "World Bank and Extractive Industries Review - Lessons Learned (and promptly ignored)."

Issue brief on IFC Performance Standards: "The International Finance Corporation's Performance Standards - the new 'gold standard' or 'fool's gold'?"

Policy brief on EDC: "Export Development Canada and Human Rights - Risk or Rights?"

New agreement for financing renewable technology a Trojan horse for environmental destruction, NGOs say

Director
Policy and Government Relations
Export Development Canada (EDC)
151 O'Connor Street

 Also Available at http://www.kairoscana

Internal Review Slams World Bank over Lapses at Guatemala Mine - Backgrounder

August 22, 2005

A forthcoming report by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), a body responsible for conducting internal reviews at the World Bank’s private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), identifies glaring deficiencies in the due diligence the institution conducted for a controversial new gold-mining project in Guatemala. The project, currently under construction by Canadian company Glamis Gold in Guatemala’s indigenous western highlands, has been surrounded by controversy and conflict since before the IFC approved $45 million in support for the project in June 2004. In January of this year, a forty-day protest by local villagers worried about the mine’s potential environmental impacts ended in bloodshed as security forces clashed with protesters, resulting in one death and dozens of injuries.

David Agren
The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

A Canadian mining company that struck a rich vein of gold in Transylvania has encountered strong opposition from environmental groups and local residents who are organizing an MTV-sponsored concert to try to thwart the development of a giant open-pit mine.

Organizers expect 2,000 protesters and fans to converge on Rosia Montana, a mineral-rich, but impoverished corner of western Romania this weekend for a concert headlined by hip-hop and alternative rock acts and a march to oppose to the project.

EDC’s Commitments to the Environment

“I have asked the Auditor General to undertake an audit two years after a revised framework has been adopted, to ensure that EDC has implemented the recommended changes in its design and operation.”

Pierre Pettigrew, Press Release, June 26, 2001
 
Following a two year review by Parliament of the Export Development Act (EDA) and Export Development Canada (EDC), Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of International Trade, held a press conference in June 2001 to highlight what changes EDC would make to its policies.

The press release noted the government commitment to, among other things:

    * Take account of benefits to Canada and Canada’s international obligations in the area of human rights, core labour standards, and the environment

Group blasts weak OECD agreement on environment

Loopholes allow export credit support for harmful projects to continue.

October 27, 2003

Mr. A. Ian Gillespie
President and CEO
Export Development Canada
151 O’Connor street,
Ottawa, ON   K1A 1K3

The Hon. Pierre Pettigrew
Minister of International Trade
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
125 Sussex Drive, Tower B, 5th Floor
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G2

Re.: Draft OECD recommendation on Common Approaches on Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits: 2003 Review – Revised version 1

Dear Mr. Gillespie and Minister Pettigrew:

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to comment on the ‘Common Approaches on Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits: 2003 Review – Revised version 1’ (Rev. 1).