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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
"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."<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
"It's gone this far because of serendipity more than anything else," Mr. Andrews said. <\/p>\n
However, the Senate is dominated by Conservatives, so conceivably the bill could die there. <\/p>\n
Gordon Peeling, president of the Mining Association of Canada, said this would not be ideal as it would involve an unelected chamber of Parliament.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
"You'll be guilty until proven innocent," he said. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
"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." <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
"Before Canada, Ecuador was a poor country," Tii Chiriap, who hails from Numpaim, Ecuador, said at the conference. <\/p>\n
Eric Lam <\/i><\/p>\n
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