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Canada strikes more than 10 African foreign investment promotion, protection accords

The African mining delegation closes the TSX on Tuesday.

The African mining delegation closes the TSX on Tuesday.

Photo by Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada

4th March 2015

By: Henry Lazenby

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

  

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TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canada has concluded foreign investment promotion and protection agreements with more than ten countries in Africa, improving the confidence and protection Canadian companies need to invest abroad.

Canada’s International Trade Minister, Ed Fast, accompanied by ministerial colleagues from African countries, on Tuesday rung the closing bell at the TSX, highlighting the success companies in the world-leading Canadian extractive sector had achieved in creating jobs and prosperity at home and abroad.

The visit to the TSX coincided with the world’s largest mining show, the 2015 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s yearly convention, which is held in Toronto.

South African Mineral Resources Minister Advocate Ngoako Ramatlhodi had signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Canada on cooperation in mining and mineral development, on behalf of the South African government.

“Minister Fast and I affirmed the commitment of partnership between our governments when we signed this MoU. The signing represents South Africa’s commitment to global partnerships in development and serves to further encourage more Canadian and South African companies operating throughout the mining and minerals value chain to deepen the special relationship we have established over the years and formalised today,” Ramatlhodi noted.

The MoU entailed cooperation between the two countries with regard to encouraging increased reciprocal investment in exploration and prospecting activities, with a particular focus on the junior to midtier mining sector. The MoU further asserted intent on cooperation and collaboration in the areas of skills development, technical expertise and experience as well as value addition and beneficiation.

The TSX and the TSX Venture Exchange were home to more than half of the world’s public mining companies, which raised almost $9-billion in 2014. The Canadian extractive sector was identified as a priority under the ‘Global Markets Action Plan’, Canada’s blueprint for creating jobs and opportunities through trade.

According to Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, the natural resources sector directly and indirectly accounted for 1.8-million jobs in Canada. Nearly 3 200 Canadian suppliers, including engineering, environmental, legal, financial and equipment companies, provide expertise and equipment to the mining subsector alone. With interests in more than 8 000 properties in more than 100 countries, Canadian extractive sector companies accounted for almost half the world’s mining and mineral exploration activity.

Canada’s extractive sector, which included oil, natural gas and mining, generated exports worth C$171.5-billion in 2014, an 11.8% increase over 2013. The sector accounted for 35% of the total value of Canadian domestic exports in 2014.

CSR COUNCELLOR
Minister Fast on Sunday announced the appointment of Jeffrey Davidson as Canada’s new corporate social responsibility (CSR) counsellor for the extractive sector.

The Office of the CSR Counsellor formed part of Canada’s enhanced CSR strategy, ‘Doing Business the Canadian Way: A Strategy to Advance Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada’s Extractive Sector Abroad’, which was launched on November 14 last year. The aim of the strategy was to ensure that Canadian companies continued to exhibit the highest standards and best practices while operating abroad.

The Office of the CSR Counsellor was established in 2009 under Canada’s first CSR strategy. Following a review of the initial strategy and cross-country consultations, the CSR counsellor’s mandate was enhanced and refocused on preventing, identifying and resolving disputes in their early stages, and on working with Canadian companies to ensure CSR guidelines were incorporated in their operating approach.

Davidson brought with him more than 35 years of international experience, in both the public and private sectors, in project development and management, community outreach and local social and economic development.

He was positioned to act as a community interface, engage with stakeholders and build long-lasting relationships so that local communities and host countries could realise the economic and social benefits of responsible resource development, in partnership with "world-class", socially responsible Canadian extractive companies.

Davidson was selected after a public competition, for a mandate of three years.

However, the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) on Tuesday spoke against the appointment, saying it was concerned that Fast was wasting public funds with this week's appointment of a new CSR counsellor.

"The mandate of the CSR Counsellor has been flawed from the start. Regardless of who gets appointed, the Office [of the CSR Counsellor] is just window-dressing. We need an independent, effective ombudsman that can investigate allegations and offer recommendations and remedy for workers or communities affected by Canadian-owned mines," CNCA chairperson Ian Thomson stressed in a statement.

The organisation represented 29 Canadian nongoverment organisations, trade unions, religious organisations and solidarity groups.

Thomson charged that since its launch in 2010, Canadian mining companies had avoided the CSR counsellor's grievance mechanism process, choosing instead to walk away and effectively shut down any review of their conduct, adding that instead of real sanctions, the government hoped to compel companies to act more constructively by threatening to refuse letters of recommendation or a spot on a Canadian trade mission.

The CNCA's 'Open for Justice Campaign' called for an extractive-sector ombudsman to be created and legislated access to Canadian courts for non-nationals harmed by Canadian companies abroad.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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