NGO Working Group
on the Export Development Corporation
A working group of the Halifax Initiative

Background paper
for the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade Hearings on Bill C-31 on the Export Development Act

October 15, 2001

The NGO Working Group on the Export Development Corporation is a coalition of 17 Canadian non-governmental organisations concerned about the social, human and environmental impacts of export credit agencies. The NGO Working Group has been participating fully in the legislative process on the Export Development Act since 1999, including the SCFAIT hearings in 1999, the public consultations on the EDC’s disclosure policy and environmental review framework, and the international campaign to reform export credit agencies which has focused on the OECD’s Export Credit Guarantees process.

In Canada, CASA is being undertaken by a Steering Committee of non-governmental organizations from a number of sector

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Submitted as part of EDC's consultations on the environment, this report makes a case for placing EDC under the provisions of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

Abstract

 
EDC needs more accountability, critics say: Rights, protection issues
PUBLICATION The National Post
DATE Mon 22 May 2000
EDITION National
SECTION/CATEGORY Canada
PAGE NUMBER A7
BYLINE Paul Waldie
STORY LENGTH 246

May 19, 2000

The Honourable Pierre Pettigrew
Minister for International Trade

Dear Minister Pettigrew:

The federal government is considering whether changes should be made in the way that the Export Development Corporation (EDC) operates, a Canadian taxpayer-supported agency, assists Canadian business interests abroad. The choices that the federal government makes about how EDC operates will have significant social and environmental consequences.

As a Crown corporation, EDC pays no taxes, enjoys limited liability, and its credit is backed by the Canadian government. Yet it operates largely in secret. Unlike other government agencies, EDC is not subject to the Access to Information Act, and it keeps the projects it funds a secret. It has no binding standards requiring its projects to adhere to well-accepted social, environmental, labour or human rights standards.

Liberals plan watchdog for EDC: Ombudsman would try to keep
controversial Crown corporation `accountable'
PUBLICATION The Ottawa Citizen
DATE Fri 19 May 2000 
EDITION FINAL
SECTION/CATEGORY News
PAGE NUMBER A1/Front
BYLINE Jack Aubry 
STORY LENGTH 733
The government is looking at establishing an ombudsman for the Export Development Corporation as part of an effort to improve the much-criticized Crown corporation's ``accountability, compliance and access to information.''

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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.

This submission analyses the report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) entitled "Exporting in the Canadian Interest: Reviewing the Export Development Act". Our recommendations are primarily concerned with Chapter 9 of the Report on the Review of the Export Development Act (hereinafter the Gowlings report).

Tuesday, November 16, 1999

Canadian NGOs Launch Campaign to Make EDC Responsible to People and the Environment