Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on June 6th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Good afternoon, everyone. This is the 86th meeting of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Today is June 7, 2013. The meeting is televised.

So don't do anything your mother wouldn't approve of, unless the camera is on somebody else.

Today we have as our witness, Brent Bergeron, senior vice-president of corporate affairs for Goldcorp.

I should inform the members of the subcommittee that Mr. Bergeron was supposed to have a PowerPoint presentation. We were supposed to have audiovisual equipment set up. He contacted us in advance about this. Something went wrong and it isn't here.

Mr. Bergeron, I owe you an apology for that. The clerk informs me that copies are being made of your presentation to be distributed. That is not as useful, particularly for people who are watching, since this is televised. That is a frustration. I can only apologize to you for it. I promise that as soon as the copies are made, they will be distributed. It looks like they are being distributed now.

Let's begin. I'm sure you know how this works. There's more or less 10 minutes for your presentation, after which we'll look at the amount of time available and divide it by six to determine how many minutes are to be devoted to each question-and-answer session.

Please feel free to begin.

[Brent Bergeron, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Goldcorp Inc.]

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and honourable members of Parliament.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to testify before the Subcommittee on International Human Rights. It is a great honour for me to be able to share with you some information on the way in which Goldcorp Inc. has worked with a concern for human rights and for environmental protection in Honduras , as we do for all our activities.

As Mr. Chairman mentioned, my name is Brent Bergeron, and I am the senior vice-president of corporate affairs for Goldcorp. Part of my responsibilities includes corporate social responsibility, government and stakeholder relations, risk analysis, and communications. Before discussing our project in Honduras, allow me to give you a brief description of our company.

Goldcorp Inc. is a company that specializes in extracting gold and other minerals. Our main activity is gold extraction. We are the biggest gold-mining company in the world when measured by market capitalization. Our headquarters are in Vancouver and we have approximately 14,000 employees in our operations around the world.

All of Goldcorp's operations are currently in the Americas. In terms of exploration, construction, and production activities, we are active in Canada, the United States, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Chile, and Argentina. In 2012, Canada was our most important country of production, at approximately 42% of our total production. Mexico was second, at 35%, followed by Guatemala, at 9%. We are proud of the fact that while expanding significantly at the international level, Goldcorp also maintains a strong focus in Canada. We currently have three mining operations in Ontario.

We also have a project in northern Quebec, our Éléonore project, which will begin production in 2014. It represents an investment of about $1.8 billion.

Goldcorp's corporate vision is summed up as creating sustainable prosperity, which is the corporate principle applied to all of our operations. We have done this at our project in Honduras, and even after the mine has closed. Our San Martin mine is located in central Honduras approximately 66 kilometres north of the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Goldcorp acquired the San Martin mine in 2006 through our acquisition of Glamis Gold. The mine was in production from 2000 to 2009 and has an open pit heap leaching operation.

While still producing we developed a mine closure plan, which was vetted by the Government of Honduras. After closure we continued our reclamation activities so as to leave the former mine site in the best possible condition for the local community of the Valle de Siria. The company continues with our voluntary monitoring of the site in cooperation with the Government of Honduras and has an agreement to continue this activity until at least the end of 2013.

In 2008 Goldcorp donated the San Martin mine camp to the San Martin Foundation. Today, chicken, pigs, cattle, and tilapia fish are farmed on the 1,500 acre former mine site providing functioning ecosystems, sustainable jobs, and skilled training to all the people in the valle. The former camp facilities have been remodelled to become a hotel for ecotourism complete with pools, sports facilities, nature trails, and a training centre for the community. I will discuss this further in my presentation. However it is important to mention that the former site is now a sustainable business that has created local jobs and new investment in the area.

It was important for us at Goldcorp that the mine not simply close once production concluded. The San Martin Foundation means that the benefits of the mines are extending beyond its life by allowing the people of the region to develop new skills and continue to grow. I have brought a study on the San Martin project prepared by two of our experts on mine closure.

Mr. Chairman, with your permission I would like to leave a copy with the clerk asking that it is distributed eventually to all honourable members of the committee.

I encourage the honourable members to read it at their convenience. Meanwhile, with the chair's permission I would like to show you the following photos—which was part of my presentation. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if they're here yet.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Unfortunately, not. We're still waiting for the copies.

Again, my apologies.

[Brent Bergeron]

Okay, I will give you a bit of a description about the photos, and you will have a chance to review them. They basically show the entire effort that the company has made, leading up to the closure of the production facility, whereby the site has been reclaimed. In particular, the open-pit areas have been reseeded and reforested. We also have reclaimed and reseeded the leaching pad area completely, and there are now farm animals actually grazing there. You'll see that in the pictures.

Another important part would be the containment ponds, where we had a lot of the water processing taking place during production at the mine. That entire area was also reclaimed. Now, that area actually is the site of tilapia farming. As of 2011, they are now producing approximately 55,000 kilograms of tilapia fish for sale and consumption in the area.

We also have other types of businesses that are operating in the area, as I mentioned. There is the production of beef, and there is also a chicken-producing farm in the area that now produces approximately 38,000 kilograms of poultry meat per year, including for sale and distribution in the area.

One of the things we did, however, with the San Martin Foundation was to actually transfer the ownership of all of the offices and facilities that were used by our mine workers in the past, and which are now being used as an eco-hotel. The eco-hotel, as I mentioned, has pool and tennis facilities, and now attracts approximately 4,000 guests per year, visiting the sites and the reclaimed areas of the mines, and actually carrying on quite a lot of sports activities,

That was the part of the presentation I had with the pictures.

Part of the documentation that I also brought for you, Mr. Chairman, is a November 2011 certification from the Honduran public prosecutor's office. This is the Special Prosecutor of the Environment, and his document is translated into English. This office, Mr. Chairman, undertook environmental studies of the former mine after receiving accusations from local NGOs. Using World Health Organization parameters, the special prosecutor found that arsenic, cyanide, and mercury were not above normal levels in the blood of local inhabitants. It did mention that lead levels were a bit above the WHO guidelines, but found no significant link to the mining operation. I've tabled a copy of that also.

The closure of the San Martin mine has been and will continue to be very important for Goldcorp. It allows us to showcase to other communities where we are currently producing, or hoping to produce, that we take the closure of our mines very seriously. Committee members have heard the testimony saying that the mine site was left in bad condition. I want to underline that doing so would not only be morally wrong, but it would also make no business sense for Goldcorp. If Goldcorp were to handle closure badly at one of our operations, it would harm our reputation and have a negative affect on our industry and the value of our company. The success of our business depends on having good relations with communities where we operate. Our investments are long term, and often last several decades.

I would like to emphasize to the members of the subcommittee that Goldcorp Inc. takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously.

We are always ready to conduct scientific studies in all our activities. We firmly believe that we have left the people in the Valle de Siria with an environment that does honour to Goldcorp Inc. and, by extension, to Canada.

Mr. Chair, honourable members of Parliament, thank you once more for inviting me. I will be pleased to answer your questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bergeron.

It was very fast, for which I am grateful. This means that we will have enough time for seven-minute rounds of questions and answers, and we'll begin with Mr. Sweet.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Mr. Bergeron, thank you very much for being here. I want to ask you first whether you got an opportunity to go through some of the previous testimony of witnesses whom we had before the committee, particularly that of Professor Todd Gordon, who was at our last meeting.

[Brent Bergeron]

Yes, I did.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Okay. Your testimony is profoundly different from his, and I wanted to make sure I didn't shock you with any questions that are coming up. But I want to ask you very directly about some things that were said with respect to Goldcorp responsibilities now.

One thing mentioned by Mr. Gordon in response to a question from one of my colleagues is that a security tax has been implemented. I believe it is 2.5% with respect to Canadian mining. A security tax is being implemented in a number of different sectors, including on withdrawal of cash from bank machines, with the mining sector included.

That, of course, creates all kinds of images about what this 2.5% tax is. Do you pay that tax, and do you put it into blind bank accounts? How did that work during the times you were doing business in Honduras?

[Brent Bergeron]

I don't have any information specifically regarding that tax itself, but I can mention that Goldcorp's policy regarding our commitment and our responsibility towards paying taxes is taken quite seriously in all countries. If this were part of the tax regime that we needed to pay in the country, then we would have done so.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

In other testimony before us, it was said that:

Opponents of the San Martin mine have, through the years, faced harassment and intimidation. In the summer of 2011, 17 people were charged with obstructing a forestry project on land for which mineral concessions were previously granted to Goldcorp.

Are you aware of this situation?

[Brent Bergeron]

We have heard about this situation, but I can tell you that Goldcorp has at this point relinquished all mining concessions in Honduras. We don't have any concessions in that country as of now.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

In January, Mr. Gordon said, Guatemalan Goldcorp security guards opened fire on protesting workers.

How do you respond to that?

[Brent Bergeron]

That is another operation. That is not an operation that is operated by Goldcorp. I believe they make reference to an operation that is actually owned by a company called Tahoe Resources.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Sir, could you repeat the name of the other company?

[Brent Bergeron]

I believe it's Tahoe Resources.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Do you know where they are from? Is it a Canadian company?

[Brent Bergeron]

It's a Canadian company. We own 40% of that company, but it is a Canadian company that is listed on the stock market here in Canada.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

So Goldcorp has some ownership in that company.

[Brent Bergeron]

We do have ownership, but it's simply an investment. We are not part of the operations of that company.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Well, with the 40% stake in it, did you investigate the situation Mr. Gordon was talking about?

[Brent Bergeron]

We investigate all incidents that happen, not just at sites in Guatemala that we own partial investments in, but also at all industry sites in Guatemala, in order to make sure that we understand what is going on in the country and whether or not these incidents are real.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Did you find any culpability of the company you have invested in regarding their security guards opening fire on protestors?

[Brent Bergeron]

That investigation, from what our security people are telling us right now, is still ongoing, and the Government of Guatemala is actually investigating it.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

The other thing that was mentioned was environmental. I've met a number of Hondurans who, for example, for more than a decade have been involved in the struggle against Goldcorp, as well as activists with the Sierra Valley environmental defence committee who blame Goldcorp for polluting the local water system and poisoning inhabitants in the valley.

How do you respond to that?

[Brent Bergeron]

I think that if you had seen some of the pictures in my presentation, you would have seen that the site has been reclaimed in a way that we feel is environmentally responsible. Goldcorp continues, with the cooperation of the Government of Honduras, to monitor the site for any type of environmental issues. There are functioning farming activities going on in the area, providing food, that is providing other types of meat, to the local population. We would disagree with that type of comment.