Below is a reverse chronological list of all the official correspondence sent by the Halifax Initiative Coalition to various national and international financials institutions, like Export Development Canada and the World Bank, or to various Canadian government officials related to a range of different issues.
You can also browse this correspondence by issue using the search function.
British Prime Minister Cameron has announced that standards for multilateral information exchange, increasing transparency of the ownership of trusts and companies, and reform of global tax rules will be key items on the agenda of the G-8 meeting this June. These are policy positions that NGOs have promoted for many years. We have written to Prime Minister Harper to urge that Canada take a progressive position on these issues and help move them forward.
In this letter to Export Development Canada and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Chilean and Argentine organizations express harsh criticisms regarding the public agencies' due diligence processes concerning Barrick Gold's application for support for Pascua Lama.
AUGUST 27, 2010
General Observations
The undersigned civil society organizations believe the latest drafts of the Sustainability Policy, Performance Standards, and Disclosure Policy respond usefully to some issues raised previously by many civil society organizations, including, for example, several issues related to gender, resettlement, and climate change. Many of our most significant concerns, however, remain unaddressed, including centrally important issues related to due diligence, transparency, and accountability, and other issues related to substantive concerns.
Fred P. Hochberg
President
Export-Import Bank of the United States
Washington, D.C.
[Via e-mail]
May 10, 2010
Re: Pascua Lama
Dear President Hochberg,
It has come to our attention that the Ex-Im Bank has received a request to finance the binational Pascua Lama mine. We are writing to strongly urge that the Ex-Im Bank reject financing for the Pascua Lama mine.
Brussels, 26 March 2010
Mr. Steve Tvardik
Head, Export Credits
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Paris, France
Dear Mr. Tvardik,
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the on-going review of the Sector Understanding on Export Credits for Renewable Energies and Water Projects (Sector Understanding) by the Participants to the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits (Participants).
We have outlined our comments starting with our overall concern about ECA financing of fossil fuels and then following this up with specific inputs to sections of the Sector Understanding. It ends with a short conclusion bringing together the main issues to concentrate on.
Overall Issue: The need to end fossil fuel financing
Commenting on The Social and Environmental Sustainability Policy, Performance Standards and Disclosure Policy
Introduction
The undersigned civil society organizations have prepared this joint submission to provide an overview of many of our concerns related to IFC’s Policy on Social and Environmental Sustainability, the Performance Standards, related guidance documents, and the Disclosure Policy. We believe these concerns should be explored and addressed further through IFC’s current consultation and review process.
| Hon. James Flaherty Minister of Finance Department of Finance Canada 140 O’Connor Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0G5 |
Hon. Lawrence Cannon Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada 125 Sussex Drive Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2 |
1st February 2010
Ref: Immediate debt cancellation for Haiti
Dear Ministers Flaherty and Cannon,
We are writing to commend the government’s efforts to date to mobilise emergency assistance for disaster relief in Haiti and for speaking to the urgency and importance of debt cancellation for the country. The call to cancel Haiti’s remaining multilateral debt, including last week’s highly concessional $102 million loan from the IMF, benefits from a strong Canadian voice. We urge you to keep demonstrating such leadership in the government’s interventions at the Bretton Woods Institutions, and at Haiti’s largest multilateral creditor, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).