March 28, 2008

The Honourable James Flaherty
Minister of Finance
House of Commons
Wellington St.
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

Dear Minister Flaherty:

I am writing with respect to the 2007 OECD Revised Council Recommendation on Common Approaches on the Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits. The Recommendation currently lacks a credible mechanism to monitor Member implementation and I write to urge Canada to support the adoption of a peer review system. I understand that the Secretariat of the OECD Export Credit Group (ECG) intends to include the issue of peer review for the Common Approaches in the agenda of the upcoming ECG meeting in April 2008. A peer review system is essential to generate credible information for use in the 2010 report to the OECD Council on the implementation of the Recommendation.

This paper examines international human rights law and officially-supported export credit agencies.

CANADA: Gov't Urged to Rein in Mining Sector
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40353

by Am Johal, IPS News
December 7th, 2007

Canadian mining companies continue to come under scrutiny from civil society organisations for international human rights violations and environmental damage that critics say the Canadian government has done little to check.

Canada is a leader in the global mining industry, with almost 60 percent of the world's listed exploration and mining companies. The government supports some foreign mining activity through Export Development Canada, a federal agency.

November 5, 2007

Ms. Karyn Keenan
Program Officer
Halifax Initiative
104-153 Chapel Street
Ottawa ON KIN 1H5

Dear Ms. Keenan:

This is in response to your letter of September 17. Your letter contains many questions and comments which I will answer by focusing on the key issues that you raise.

The first issue raised refers to Export Development Canada’s practices related to public consultations and whether this is a requirement of our environmental review process.

Members of the Export Credit Group
OECD
2, rue André Pascal
F-75775 Paris Cedex 16
Fax: c/o 01 44 30 61 58
Email: c/o Xcred.Secretariat@oecd.org

Paris, 5 November 2007

Dear Sir/Madam,

World Bank’s long term strategy – business as usual?
100 days into his term, World Bank President Bob Zoellick has outlined his vision for an inclusive and sustainable globalization that seeks to “overcome poverty [and] enhance growth with care for the environment”. Importantly, it also seeks to better integrate the activities of the World Bank Group (WBG) and build a more financially robust and flexible institution. And it occurs at a time when the Bank is desperate to recapture new borrowers and build new markets in an environment that has a wealth of new sources of development finance.

Wolfowitz & World Bank in the spotlight over scandal
While the World Bank's executive directors have yet to make a decision on the future of president Paul Wolfowitz, calls for the former U.S. deputy defence secretary’s resignation are gaining momentum. The Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), which assesses the degree to which the Bank's work meets its stated objectives, issued a formal statement described by the Financial Times as a “searing indictment of Paul Wolfowitz's leadership.”

Paris, 20 April 2007

UN Special Representative explores human rights obligations of financial institutions
There is growing consensus that human rights rank high among the pressing challenges that face both the private sector and its financiers. On February 16, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations, John Ruggie, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights convened a consultation on human rights and the financial sector in Geneva. The meeting included representatives from a number of export credit agencies (ECAs), the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, several Equator Principle banks, academia and civil society.