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Oral Presentation Speaking Notes for the
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Delta Bow Valley Hotel, Calgary
Tuesday evening, October 10, 2006
By Ian Thomson
Program Coordinator for Corporate Social Responsibility,
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
ithomson
Hello. My name is Ian Thomson and I am program coordinator for Corporate
Social Responsibility at KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives.
KAIROS is a national ecumenical organization that unites 11 Canadian
churches and church agencies in working on social justice and human
rights issues.
KAIROS is a member of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) and has endorsed the CNCA’s four core policy recommendations to these roundtables. As members of the Roundtables Steering Committee and Advisory Group are familiar with these recommendations by now, I don’t feel the need to repeat them here. KAIROS has also endorsed the ten recommendations of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) report from June 2005, including the two related to the activities of TVI Pacific Inc. in the Philippines, and we continue to call for the government to implement them.
The Standing Committee set out several challenges to the government in its report. One of these is to expand the channels through which Canada promotes human rights and environmental responsibility in developing countries. Canadian companies have a vital role to play in respecting and exporting these rights and principles. It’s time to end the fiction that Canadian-registered companies are bound by nothing Canadian when their operations expand outside our borders to other countries. Since funds for these operations are raised on our capital markets and corporate decisions on how they are managed are made here, then Canada clearly has a role in regulating these activities.
This evening I would like to present three recommendations for these roundtables. The first relates to an issue of concern to several of our KAIROS partners in developing countries, many of whom have first hand experience of the impacts – both positive and negative – of Canadian extractive companies. This is the issue of a community’s right to decide how and whether a resource extraction project should be developed on or near their lands – also known as free, prior and informed consent.
The Standing Committee report provides some useful guidance on this issue when it refers the government to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The Declaration recognizes the right of free, prior and informed consent. Adopted in June by the UN Human Rights Council with only two members opposed (one of which was Canada), the Declaration is expected to come before the UN General Assembly for adoption during its current session. Despite the Canadian government’s position at the Human Rights Council, we should use the Declaration and ensure that any “actionable ideas” coming out of this roundtable process are consistent with the rights enshrined within it.
Recommendation 1.
The Canadian government must commit to uphold, respect and promote
the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) at home and
abroad. To advance this goal:
- The Government must require companies to document publicly the processes by which community consent was obtained prior to developing a project. Indeed, a feasibility study cannot be considered full and complete without well-documented, community consent. In addition, companies must disclose information on how community consent is being maintained throughout the life of the project.
- The Government must facilitate access to the Canadian justice system for foreign nationals to resolve disputes around FPIC.
I don’t think I need to emphasize the importance of this issue to an Alberta audience. Recently we have seen Aboriginal peoples expressing opposition to certain oil sands developments in the north of this province. Unless the Government of Canada develops a more sophisticated approach to FPIC based on internationally recognized rights in the UN Declaration and the World Bank’s Extractive Industries Review, the mining, oil and gas sectors will continue to face great uncertainty around these issues.
While Canadian churches are concerned about these community rights primarily as issues of justice and human rights, churches are also institutional investors through their pension funds and other investment assets. A company that fails to secure the social license to operate for a given project can face operational delays, legal challenges, political pressure and reputational risk – all of which can have a material impact on shareholder value, and are of concern to all investors. The Canadian government must clarify that social and environmental risks constitute material information to investors and require such reporting as part of a company’s duty of continuous disclosure.
Recommendation 2.
The Canadian government must:
- Amend federal legislation governing business corporations to require CSR reporting based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, and
- Work with provincial securities regulators to establish clear CSR reporting requirements for publicly listed companies, also based on GRI guidelines.
KAIROS recognizes that new reporting requirements will not be enough to achieve respect for human rights and compliance with environmental standards. We also need to hold corporations accountable when they violate these standards. Therefore, KAIROS and our Canadian church members are united in saying:
Recommendation 3.
The Canadian government must enact clear legal norms to ensure that
Canadian companies, their officers and directors are held accountable
when there is evidence of environmental or human rights violations
associated with their activities abroad.
Before I conclude, I’d like to make a brief remark about participation from the global South in these roundtables. KAIROS is pleased to see that three representatives from developing countries have been invited to participate in this roundtable – more than either of the previous ones. While it was unfortunate that the government did not bring any representatives from Asia and Africa to the roundtables until now, I hope you will take full advantage of their input and participation this week. And I urge the government to ensure representation from a diversity of developing countries at the final roundtable in Montreal.
Thank you.
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