Canada's powerful mining lobbyists have been waging a quiet battle against Liberal MP John McKay's controversial private member's bill for months, but Mr. McKay says he won't back down.

"It's pretty hard to measure how powerful they are," said Liberal MP John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont.), whose private member's bill, C-300, An Act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries, would allow the federal government to investigate complaints against Canadian mining companies in foreign countries, is currently being studied at the House Foreign Affairs Committee. If Canadian mining companies are found to abuse human rights or environmental laws, they could be turned down for financing by the Export Development Canada. "Every meeting we've had, there's a phalanx of lawyers monitoring the hearings and [last week, there were] four sets of lawyers there at enormous cost. So, they're very, very influential. It's very significant. It's been made abundantly clear to me that if I step one millimetre, outside of Parliamentary privilege, I will be hit with a slap suit."

Mr. McKay said he's impressed at how far the mining companies are willing to go to defeat the bill.

The bill, which "promotes environmental best practices and to ensure the protection and promotion of international human rights standards in respect of the mining, oil or gas activities of Canadian corporations in developing countries," passed second reading in the House last spring, 137 to 133.

Mr. McKay said last week that the bill is about accountability which will force companies to "conduct serious due diligence" and "be prepared to do something" when faced with serious allegations such as human rights abuses.

The bill would also require the ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to table annual reports in Parliament on whether mining, oil and gas companies comply with "guidelines that articulate corporate accountability standards." He said, however, that passing the bill will be difficult because the mining companies have "enormous influence" on the government.

"The government's position is to kill this bill with extreme prejudice," he said. "You've got a really powerful combination of forces of raid against the bill in the mining companies and the government."

NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, Ont.), his party's foreign affairs critic, said he supports the bill, and has a similar private member's bill on the Order Paper. He said "it's quite amazing" the number of "major players" who have descended on Parliament Hill to lobby MPs on the bill.

"Obviously there's a lot of attention being paid by them and we'll see what happens. I'm hoping it will pass throughout the House, notwithstanding some people's objections to the thing even existing. I mean, there are people who just don't want to see it," he said.

"This is about legislation to have a fair process so that any concerns around Canadian mining companies abroad are going to be addressed. It's that straight forward," he said. "Why would anyone be threatened by that?"

Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai (Calgary East, Alta.), Parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, said last week that the bill was unnecessary and would have negative impacts on the Canadian economy if it were passed. He said the government held roundtable discussions and conferences last year with all stakeholders recently and announced new guidelines for the extractive sector in the spring (Building the Canadian Advantage: A Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector) as well as appointed Marketa Evans as the Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor for the mining, oil and gas industry in October. The opposition should let the new process work, he said.

"Everybody's putting their views forward because it impacts them. These companies are going to be impacted seriously," he said, adding that when former Liberal international trade minister Jim Peterson appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee last week, he said that if the Liberal government were currently in power, "this bill would not have seen daylight."

Mr. Peterson, a former Liberal international trade minister, is now counsel with Fasken Martineau, an international business law firm. There are currently four lobbyists from Fasken Martineau registered to lobby the federal government on Bill C-300. Mr. Peterson, Michael Bourassa, a partner and coordinator of the firm's Global Mining Group, and Raymond Chrétien, former Canadian ambassador to France, appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 26 to come out against the bill.

"This legislation was written in haste without input from Canada's resource and extraction companies," Mr. Bourassa said in a press release. "Canadian mining and energy companies are respected as leaders worldwide, so it is a surprise to see legislation proposed in Canada that would undermine their competitive position on the world stage. Those with investments in foreign countries are very concerned about the devastating effects if this bill passes."

Tony Andrews, executive director of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, appeared before the committee on Nov. 17. He told the committee that Bill C-300 would pose significant risks to the mining, oil and gas industry. "The legislation proposed by Bill C-300 would not contribute to the objectives of either improved CSR practice or accountability," he said, adding that a combination of voluntary and mandatory mechanisms are more effective.

Both Mr. McKay and Mr. Dewar said the counsellor system is not effective, however, because everything is voluntary. In addition, Mr. McKay said, if there is an investigation and the counsellor makes a report, the minister can order a rewrite of it.

"It would be better if they had done nothing," Mr. McKay said. "If you read the mandate, the counsellor has to phone up the company in order to commence an investigation. If the company says no, that's it. The counsellor can't do a thing. ... It's actually an appearance of doing something, while doing nothing at all... It's not going to help with any allegation that we've heard at the committee."

Viviane Weitzner, senior trade and natural resources researcher with the North-South Institute, told the committee on Nov. 17 that Bill C-300 "embodies the spirit and intent" of the recommendations in the stakeholder advisory group report which established the CSR counsellor, and is needed to combat some of the undemocratic practices in third world countries when it comes to extracting natural resources. She cited Colombia as an example of a country, that while appears to one of the most progressive on paper, in practice, "indigenous and tribal rights are violated on a regular basis."

Declared Ms. Weitzner: "Despite official reports that the Colombian armed conflict may be lessening, the reality is that for indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities the conflict is intensifying. There appears to be a direct link between increased violence in indigenous and Afro-descendant communities and interest in natural resources, particularly minerals and metals." She told the committee that paramilitary groups have threatened leaders in the Afro-descendant communities with military action "in light of their 'not letting in multinational companies that will bring benefits to the communities,'" and could face forceful eviction of their land.

Ms. Weitzner said that Colombia is only one example of an "extremely complex situation that doing business [in developing countries] entails from a human rights perspective," and that the current CSR strategy is not enough to prevent those abuses. "The voluntary principles on human rights and security target only one among a multitude of potential human rights violations in which Canadian extractive companies, and by extension the Canadian government, might unwittingly become complicit, despite best intentions," she said.

Mr. McKay said this is why Bill C-300 is important. "There's just an enormous amount of countries complaining about the activities of Canadian mining companies and that is ultimately hurting our reputation abroad. This bill proposes to take a very tiny flashlight and shine it on the activities and it's really an accountability bill. It says, well, whatever activities are there are there, but the Canadian taxpayer that may have significant investments in a company, or the Canadian pensioners who may have significant investments in the company, should at least be entitled to some accountability and transparency," he said. "It will be an international black eye for Canada if this doesn't pass."

bvongdou@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times

People registered to lobby the federal government on Bill C-300, The Corporate Accountability of Mining, Oil and Gas Corporations in Developing Countries Act:

• Catherine Fraser, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, for Kinross Gold Corporation, Gold corp Inc. and Barrick Gold Corporation

• Claudia Feldkamp, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, for Kinross Gold Corporation

• Michael Bourassa, Fasken Marineau Dumoulin LLP, for Barrick Gold Corporation, Gold corp Inc., and Kinross Gold Corporation

• Susan Murdock, in-house for MiningWatch Canada

• Aaron Regent, in-house for Barrick Gold Corporation

• Charles Todd, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, for Kinross Gold Corporation and Goldcorp Inc.

• David F. Denison, in-house for Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

• Donald Peters, in-house for Mennonite Central Committee Canada

• Gord McIntosh, Ketchum Inc., for Metallica Resources Inc.

• Perrin Beatty, in-house for Canadian Chamber of Commerce

— Source: Office of Commisioner of Lobbying, Lobbyist Registration