Voices needed at roundtables

COMMENTARY

About a year ago, by some Google-generated forking in the information highway, I encountered The Canadian National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and a series of meetings regarding the alleged actions of a company (Calgary-based TVI Pacific) in the Philippines, specifically the company’s Canatuan mining project in Mindanao. In addition, however, a larger, vaguer discussion permeates the records of these meetings about how Canadian regulators should control home-grown mining companies that travel abroad to work and invest.

My personal response to the subcommittee proceedings at the time was a mixture of resignation and trepidation. Resignation at seeing a Canadian company being raked over the coals at a federal meeting and perhaps commiseration as a Canadian-based explorer working in other jurisdictions and faced with daily reminders that where I work is not Canada. Resignation also in thinking — despite knowing little about the situation — that the situation was likely being dealt with badly by TVI, a reaction that appears to be common in this industry. I should know better, as should all of us in Canada who are in mineral exploration and early development projects around the world. The challenges of integrating culturally and socially into the more than 100 countries around the world are daunting even when we work in only one or two of them. The challenge for companies in these situations is often opaque, and those who are not in that environment should not rush to judgment.

The trepidation I felt was for the involvement of my government in deliberations about the work I do in other jurisdictions. My experience and that of others has been that after spending time exploring in and around many societies or sub-cultures, I often have more experience there than the local representatives of Canada. Our lines of communication are different and more regularly used. Frequently, we work in areas never visited by Canadian embassy or consular officials. If an environmental or human rights issue involving a mining project comes before the Canadian government for adjudication or other proceedings, how will the process work? How will it mesh with the rules already applied by the host jurisdiction? How will they react to Canadians applying rules over their own? How do we in industry react?

A new series of roundtables and hearings are now in progress in Canada to “generate recommendations for action by government, civil society and industry on the topic of corporate social responsibility and the Canadian extractive sector in developing countries.” They began in Vancouver in June and the next are scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 12 and Wednesday, Sept. 13 in Toronto. Though the deadline has passed to make oral presentations at the Toronto roundtables, observers are welcome. Simply show up at the Radisson Admiral Hotel at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 and 8.30 a.m. the following morning and register. Both sessions take place at 249 Queen’s Quay West in downtown Toronto.

Written submissions are also invited if you feel they would convey your thoughts more succinctly and with the benefit of more time. Written submissions should be sent to Sabrina Ramzi at Sabrina.Ramzi@international.gc.ca or Clare Morris at Clare.Morris@international.gc.ca.

The next roundtables following Toronto will be held in Calgary on Oct. 10-12, and Montreal, Nov. 14-16. For more information, visit http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/cip-pic/current_discussions/csr-roundtables-en.asp

The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and the Mining Association of Canada are working on our industry’s behalf at these meetings and are appealing for our help. Although both groups have been involved in these issues before, the depth of their members’ experiences needs to be brought forward. The associations can relate these experiences, but they cannot represent them. At the first roundtable in Vancouver in June, industry was regrettably under-represented in the open presentation sessions. Most presentations were from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society and highly critical of the industry. Several industry representatives in attendance who had come to listen felt compelled to present remarks simply as a defence to the comments they heard. That we came in small numbers as an industry to listen rather than speak is indicative of our concerns about being dragged into these debates with our colleagues or our lack of focus on the bigger picture at home. At the end of these meetings, documentation and records show the same thing — that people in the mining sector failed to defend their projects and their industry.

These roundtables are an opportunity for you to state your views on how you see Canada’s exploration and mining companies operating abroad and to what level you feel the Canadian government should be involved — to put forward your recommendations, based on your experience, on what place they have in corporate responsibility in the mining sector.

This affects all of us in the sector — those companies with exploration and mining projects abroad, but inevitably here at home as well. We as explorers and miners have to make our views known because in the greater scheme of things, silence is acquiescence.

— The author is the vice-president of exploration with Toronto-based Intrepid Mines, which has projects in Australia, Argentina and El Salvador.