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May 10, 2012
The image of Canada's mining companies need a makeover and Marketa Evans thinks
she can help.
Canadian mining businesses have a bad reputation internationally according to a
report commissioned by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. The
findings were so damning that they never saw the light of day until
Miningwatch.ca got a hold of them. The embarrassing details of the report reveal
that Canadian mining companies have four times the abuses of their nearest
competitors in Australia and India.
These abuses range from human rights violations and environmental damage to
social conflict. They implicate Calgary-based Blackfire Resources in the murder
of Mexican who was opposed to mining in Chiapas; failure to set aside sufficient
funds to repair damage from mining in Guatemala by Goldcorp Inc.; and a massacre
near a mine operated by Anvil Mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Not to worry, Evans has a solution. "Corporate Social Responsibility is a key
business tool in this new operating environment; well applied, it gives local
communities a stronger voice in mining projects in their area while offering
companies a greater degree of certainty."
Corporate Social Responsibility is not new: it has rehabilitated tarnished
corporate images for decades. Sometime the results are even laudable as when
companies convert to Fair Trade products.
Others only use CSR as window dressing; an attempt to distract from bad business
practices and unhealthy products; to preempt government regulation of their
industry. CSR has been given a bad name by the tobacco industry and British
Petroleum as they attempt to divert attention from their unethical conduct.
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Evans, counsellor for the Government of Canada's Extractive Sector, is
optimistic that CSR can buff up the tainted image of mining. "CSR is often
misunderstood. It is not about philanthropy or 'doing the right thing' or
random acts of kindness; it is about fully understanding and systematically
mitigating social risks. Poorly managed social risks result in destruction
of shareholder value and negative impacts on communities and human rights,"
she writes in the Vancouver Sun.
Miningwatch Canada is less optimistic. They found that the mining companies
with the worst violations have CSR policies in place. These policies are
cynical attempts to sweep dirt under the carpet. The Government of Canada
could bring sanctions against these global blemishes to Canada's reputation
but haven't.
One attempt was Bill C-300 that went before Parliament in 2010. It was
backed by a wide spectrum of supporters: villagers affected by mining,
unions, the UN and human rights advocates. Proposed by a Liberal MP, the
bill would have set international human rights and environmental standards
for the activities carried out by Canadian companies in developing countries
and punish those who didn't. Regrettably, under intense lobbying by the
mining sector the bill was narrowly defeated.
As Kamloopsians are keenly aware, mining can be a messy business in your
back yard. No less so in other countries occupied by indigenous people where
regulations are poor to nonexistent. Mining companies need to go above and
beyond the laws of the countries they operate in, says Evans: ". . . simple
compliance with the law is no longer enough. To deal with low levels of
public trust and the need for secure access to land, miners have to work
harder to foster stakeholder trust and to build robust engagement and
relationships."
Our mining companies are the global face of Canada. What they do reflects on
us all. Failure by our government to force them to act responsibly tarnishes
our reputation. I used to proudly wear a maple leaf and display the flag on
my luggage. Now I worry about being called an "ugly Canadian."
David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at
dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca
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