Canada's mining leadership put up a united front at PDAC Monday to fight a private member's bill they say will "seriously harm" the industry if passed into law.
While most private member's bills fail to pass, the fact that PDAC has gone to considerable effort to hold a press conference, plaster anti-C-300 buttons, signs and assorted literature all over the convention floor shows just how seriously they take this issue.
Tony Andrews, executive director of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), took aim at John McKay, the Liberal MP who originated Bill C-300.
"John McKay has never been familiar with the complexity of [corporate social responsibility]," Mr. Andrews said at a press conference. "He's been led along by NGOs."
The bill, which has passed second reading, calls for greater accountability on the part of Canadian mining companies working overseas in areas including environmental and social impact.
Accountability would be enforced through a complaints mechanism that allows the minister of foreign affairs to launch investigations into companies if a complaint is received, a major concern for PDAC and the mining community.
"It's gone this far because of serendipity more than anything else," Mr. Andrews said.
However, the Senate is dominated by Conservatives, so conceivably the bill could die there.
Gordon Peeling, president of the Mining Association of Canada, said this would not be ideal as it would involve an unelected chamber of Parliament.
He also complained that Bill C-300 would be used as a tactic by anti-mining organizations to sully the reputation of Canadian mining companies.
"You'll be guilty until proven innocent," he said.
Robert Wisner, a lawyer with McMillan LLP who specializes in foreign investment protection and testified against the bill in front of a Parliamentary committee, echoed those concerns.
"All it takes is one person writing a letter to initiate a ministerial investigation according to rules that are impossibly vague," he said. "A political official will become police, judge, jury and maybe even executioner."
To show their sincerity, PDAC even trotted out an Ecuadorian shaman who, through a translator, said his country welcomes Canadian miners as long as they are responsible.
"Before Canada, Ecuador was a poor country," Tii Chiriap, who hails from Numpaim, Ecuador, said at the conference.
Eric Lam