Feds take industry advice on social responsibility policy Trade Minister Ed Fast, pictured speaking in Germany earlier this year, announced the new policy after almost a year of review. The Harper government’s updated corporate social responsibility policy for Canadian oil, mining and gas companies operating abroad generally follows what the mining industry wanted. While at least one industry association is largely happy with the changes, several regular critics of Canadian mining activities abroad say the federal government’s strategy is positive in some respects, but could have gone further. Kristen Shane Published: Wednesday, 11/19/2014 Trade Minister Ed Fast announced the government’s revised CSR policy at a Nov. 14 press conference in New Westminster, BC. Interested groups were anxious for the strategy to be released after nearly a year of consultations, reviewing the government’s original 2009 policy, a couple planks of which have hit bumps in the road. The Canadian extractive sector is a huge part of Canada’s brand abroad. Canada’s mining, oil and gas companies account for almost half the mining and exploration activity in the world, according to the federal government. Canadian-based extractive companies have interests in more than 8,000 properties in more than 100 countries. Toronto is a global hub for mining finance, and Canada is home to more than half of the world’s publicly listed exploration and mining companies. While Canadian extractive-sector companies have boosted the livelihoods of people in many poor countries where they work, many have also been accused of being responsible for immediate and long-term environmental degradation and human rights abuses. Carrots and sticks In the new strategy, Mr. Fast said he would keep, but retool, the office of the corporate social responsibility counsellor, a role that both industry and its critics had suggested was ineffective. After the office launched in 2010 as an arm’s-length outpost of the trade department, counsellor Marketa Evans didn’t have much luck mediating any of the six cases that came before her. The voluntary nature of the mediation process meant when companies decided not to participate, she had little choice but to close files without resolution. This happened three times. She resigned to pursue other opportunities outside government in the fall of 2013, and the position remains open. Mr. Fast announced a selection process to fill the job on Nov. 14. He took the Mining Association of Canada’s advice by repositioning the CSR counsellor’s office. It will now promote CSR guidelines, give advice and work to resolve conflicts in their early stages, with potential for dispute referral to another non-judicial and voluntary government-linked mediation service. That service, called Canada’s National Contact Point, is an interdepartmental committee that is supposed to encourage companies to follow the OECDs voluntary guidelines for good corporate governance, and provide a forum for dispute resolution based on those guidelines. Mr. Fast said the government could reward compliant companies with “enhanced” government diplomatic services, and punish unco-operative firms. Companies or others unwilling to participate in either dispute settlement through the NCP or CSR counsellor could see the government publicize this, and possibly yank a company’s access to federal support through the trade commissioner service, trade missions, and financing by the Crown corporation Export Development Canada. Catherine Coumans, a spokesperson for the watchdog group MiningWatch Canada, said it’s the first time the government has agreed to make financial and political support contingent on companies meeting environmental and human-rights standards. “That’s a big deal,” she said, but cautioned that it’s being narrowly applied. They aren’t big enough incentives or punishments to coax a company to participate if it wouldn’t otherwise, said Ian Thomson, chair of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, a coalition of human rights, foreign aid, faith, labour union and other groups. “Not getting to take part in a Trade Canada mission, I just don’t see that as being make-or-break,” he said. And the government isn’t yanking Export Development Canada financing from a noncompliant company, he said. It’s saying EDC would take into account the company’s actions in deciding whether to give financing. This gives too much wiggle room, he said. Mr. Thomson’s coalition has been pushing the government to appoint an independent ombudsman. An NDP private member’s bill with a similar aim was voted down last month by Conservatives although it had opposition support. The updated strategy doesn’t go far enough toward the functions of an ombudsman, both he and Ms. Coumans said. “It’s all stuck in that let’s-talk mode, not in a real investigation of whether or not the company is living up to the guidelines the government of Canada has set for companies,” said Ms. Coumans. She’d rather see an ombudsman do fact-finding and make public their recommendations. She and Mr. Thomson were both also concerned that the new process, by setting up the CSR counsellor’s office as an “intake” shop with potential referral to the National Contact Point, would create an extra barrier for communities needing formal mediation. When asked whether National Contact Point mediation would be contingent on first going through the counsellor’s office, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development confirmed by email that, as before, groups or individuals could bring requests for review directly to the NCP, if they qualify under its rules. For industry: ‘It hits the mark’ Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, said he thought the strategy had a lot of elements of what he understood to be an ombudsman function. “Were generally quite supportive of it, we think it hits the mark,” he said. “It’s quite aligned with the recommendations we made.” Besides the new division of tasks between the CSR counsellor’s office and NCP, the mining association had recommended that government take away support for companies that refuse to participate in the initial grievance process with the counsellor’s office. The government strategy also stresses working through local grievance processes in the host country first before resorting to the Canadian mechanisms, which the mining association also suggested. The mining association and another industry group, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, recommended boosting the use of trade commissioners abroad and diplomatic staff to help companies with CSR activities. The government said it would increase CSR training at Canadian diplomatic missions to ensure consistent CSR-related services to the Canadian business community abroad, the building of local partnerships and the ability to detect problems early on and help fix them before they get bigger. Mr. Gratton suggested the government’s proposed sanctions are tough enough. “Certainly for a lot of smaller companies out there that rely a lot on [diplomatic] mission support, I think this is important,” he said in a phone interview. “[If] that stick gets too big and they’ll stop being a Canadian company and they’ll become Australian. So I think you have to balance things. I think the signal that your country has basically distanced itself from you is a pretty significant statement.” The government also gave a nod to Engineers Without Borders in noting in the strategy the benefits of companies procuring resources locally in host countries. Jeff Geipel, who works on mining issues with the engineering group, said the attention to local procurement was a welcome addition that his group had pushed for. The government made little mention in the strategy of a key part of the 2009 policy, a CSR Centre of Excellence that would convene academics, human rights groups and mining industry experts to develop and distribute CSR tools and information. The centre lost steam in 2012 after government funding ran dry and five civil society groups left. The group is still getting some government project-specific money for workshops, said Ben Chalmers, a mining association staffer on the centre’s executive committee. The new strategy noted that the government “values its role as an observer” on the centre’s executive committee, and “will continue to participate” in the centre’s activities. It did not mention any new funding. The government says it plans to review the CSR strategy again in five years. [email protected] @kristenshane1
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:46:07 +0000
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