Mining Sustainability Working Group

*GREEN BAG LUNCH*

Who? Mike Nutter, Hatch Engineering Regional Lead-Western Canada

What? Talk on sustainable development design practice

Where? Suite 640 – 580 Hornby St. (Infomine office)

When? Monday Nov. 30 from12pm-1pm

Hope to see you there!

There has been a lot of debate about the proposed Bill C-300. In the Mining Engineering department of UBC, Professor John Meech recently emailed the faculty and graduate students a link to a mining weekly article, outlining the arguments for and against Bill C-300. Dr. Dawn Mills proposed an open formal debate.

A bit of background on Bill C-300:

Bill C-300 was introduced to the Canadian House of Commons in February of 2009 by Liberal Member of Parliament, John McKay. The bill is intended to regulate Canadian mining companies operating in developing countries by creating a guideline for accountability to which companies must comply. The bill will also create a sytem by which complaints against companies can be filed and brought to the attention of Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
In August, Mining Watch released its opinion on the bill. Its position is largely positive, stating that this bill is “the best chance we have as Canadians to assure that Canadian extractive companies follow human rights and environmental best practices when they operate overseas“. On November 26, 2009, a joint standing committee released its position on bill C-300. This standing committee was made up of representatives from Barrick Gold, Kinross Gold, and Goldcorp. The committee is concerned that the bill is too simplistic and one-dimensional, which will cause undue economic burden and unjustified harm to the reputation of Canadian mining companies. The committee goes on to state that bill C-300 “is unnecessary as Canadian companies are already subject to a variety of domestic and international rules, regulations and guidelines holding companies to account in the area of CSR“.

In my opinion (or rather, my questions)…

Is this bill really our best hope? Or will it simply cause mining companies to leave Canada and set-up shop in less regulated regions? If Canada truly is over-regulated to the point of economic ruin, then one wonders: why would companies operate here at all? And if these companies are already made accountable through existing policies, why do incidents of social and environmental degradation mining companies with headquarter in Canada still occur? (e.g. HudBay Minerals Inc. in Guatemala, TVI Pacific in Mindanao and former Argentine minister’s recent complaints to the House of Commons). Who benefits from this bill being passed? And, who benefits from having these mining companies continue to operate as they are? Canada certainly benefits by having these companies hold headquarters within its borders economically through jobs and taxes… don’t they?
The truths in all of this can be found within the underlying motivations of the parties involved.

Any thoughts?

This paper was produced as part of the Mining and Community Health project, a collaborative research initiative between the School of Population and Public Health and the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia. It identifies key findings regarding characteristics associated with British Columbia mining communities, the mining industry and academics to consider. Associated research projects, author acknowledgements and information, and citations are provided at the end of the report.

To download the report please go to: http://www.cher.ubc.ca/researchreports/publicationlist.asp
Authors: Janis Shandro, Mieke Koehoorn, Malcolm Scoble, Christie Hurrell

Friday, Nov 6, 2009 at 12:30 – 1:30pm
Presenter: Ben Bradshaw, Associate Professor and Peter Siebenmorgen, MA Candidate
Dept. of Geography, University of Guelph
Location: Library Processing Centre Room 491 – 2206 East Mall, Vancouver, BC
Online: Wimba Classroom* – login at www.soeh.ubc.ca/seminars