Our country is a global leader in mining and resource extraction. In 2003. 64 percent of mining companies worldwide that reported significant exploration plans were based in Canada, according to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Furthermore. Canadian mining companies spend almost two-thirds of their exploration budgets on projects located outside our borders.
Unfortunately, the social and environmental leadership Canadian companies have shown has not often matched their considerable economic power. Researcher Maryanne Mutch recently returned from a one-year MCC assignment in the Philippines, where she examined a large gold mine run by Calgary-based mining and drilling company TVl Pacific, Inc. (see "Mining for truth in Mindanao, "page 13.)
There has been negative news on the activities of Canadian companies for decades. Christian peace and justice organization Kairos Canada highlighted Placer Dome's mining practices in the Philippines in the 1980s and '90s. In 2002, a United Nations report to the UN security Council described the actions of five Canadian mining companies, among others, in the Democratic Republic of Congo as "mineral rape" that "amount[s) to a multi-billion dollar corporate theft of the country's mineral assets." That's not the kind of language I want associated with my country.
From March to June of this year, a subcommittee of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade heard testimony from witnesses and read submissions on this issue, including input from MCC. The committee's report, presented to the government in June, contains strong language on its concerns and on what the Canadian government needs to do differently.
"These hearings have underlined the fact that mining activities in some developing countries have had adverse effects on local communities, especially where regulations governing the mining sector and its impact on the economic and social wellbeing of employees and local residents, as well as on the environment, are weak or non-existent, or where they are not enforced," the report states.
The committee expresses concern that Canada does not currently have any laws that require Canadian companies to conform to human rights standards in their work outside Canada. It recommends that laws be established for this purpose and also recommends that Canadian government assistance to Canadian mining companies depend on them "meeting clearly defined corporate social responsibility and human rights standards."
Linking assistance to corporate social responsibility is already the case in the Netherlands and Belgium, according to Sandra Elgersma, a policy analyst at MCC's Ottawa office. She reports that the government currently provides quite a bit of help to mining companies, including tax forgiveness for foreign taxes paid and risk insurance offered through Export Development Canada.
These recommendations that link aid, law and respect for people and the environment could lead to a major shift in how Canadian companies operate overseas.
Just good recommendations aren't enough, of course. They need to lead to further action. The Canadian government is scheduled to release a response to the report on Oct. 19. Kairos Canada provides a number of ways to express support for these recommendations by contacting the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Industry, and the Minister of Natural Resources Canada (these are online at www.kairoscanada.org/e/urgent/uaMining0508.asp). The government needs to follow up on its committee's good work to ensure Canadian mining and oil companies set an example for the rest of the industry to follow. -Tim Miller Dyck
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