Press Response - November 16, 2003

FINANCE: Groups Fear Canadian Funding for Romanian Mine

Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Nov 16 (IPS) - The World Bank's refusal to help fund a Canadian company's controversial development of a huge open pit gold mine in Romania has raised concerns the Canadian government will step in with money.

Last Monday hundreds of people gathered outside Canadian embassies in major European cities, including Budapest, Amsterdam, Vienna, Bratislava and Prague, to protest the 400-million-U.S.-dollar Rosia Montana gold mine in Romania. · Export Development Corporation· Romanian NGO Alburnus Maior· Gabriel Resources

''The Canadian government has to act to stop this mine. It will destroy the homes, churches and livelihoods of my people,” said Sorana Ciura, a member of Alburnus Maior, the Romanian group spearheading the protests, speaking at a news conference in Ottawa..

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.

Op-Ed: June 28, 2007

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/230187

Canada's Responsibility
by Gerry Barr, President-CEO Canadian Council for International Co-operation
June 28, 2007
PM sees payoff in adding Americas to foreign agenda

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided Canada should "re-engage" with the Americas, and in July he's visiting four states in the region to start up his new foreign policy direction. In a world where the majority of the population lives in underdevelopment, Harper rightly says of the Americas, "We also have countries that have development challenges." But will Canada lessen those challenges or add to them?

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