Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of Parliament.
It's an honour to participate in these deliberations with you on a matter of considerable importance.
With your permission, I would like to begin by acknowledging the work done on this report by my friend and colleague, Charles Gonthier, retired Justice of the Supreme Court. Sadly, Charles has now passed away, but I want you to know that when I asked him to collaborate on the report we have prepared for your committee he firmly committed to doing so, even though he was already in hospital. He wanted to be involved as this work goes to the heart of one of his most cherished principles. He believed that, in addition to the freedom to access markets and the need to ensure equality between all members, a sense of fraternity is also required. Our responsibility to others was Charles Gonthier's pet subject. He saw corporate social responsibility as an example of this sense of fraternity. I would therefore like to dedicate this report to the memory of Charles Gonthier.
The report you have received was prepared for the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, which is a group of 20 NGOs that cuts across faith-based groups, human rights groups, and unions. It represents a cross-section of civil society. The work we did, though, was independent, and it was conducted through the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, for which I am a researcher. I want to underscore that although I am the signatory on the report, it was work that was done with a number of jurists, and the findings we came to unequivocally were considered after a period of some long deliberation.
We were asked to look at what we were told were the most serious concerns being raised from both a legal standpoint and from the point of view of fundamental policy concerns about the bill. We were able to conclude, with no equivocation, that the bill was sound and that it addressed, in a measured way, all the dimensions of the national round tables on CSR strategy that remain to be implemented.
I would like only to underscore four elements of the report. And I welcome your questions about specific further features of it. I think that these are the four ideas that have been most critical to your deliberations on Bill C-300.
First, the question can be put as follows: is there undue prejudice to Canadian companies from this measure that will subject them uniquely to a process of oversight that other companies don't share, either in Canada or abroad? The answer we came to on that question is straightforward. Far from there being prejudice to Canadian companies, we believe there is a very close connection between helping to build the reputation of Canadian companies abroad with respect to their human rights and environmental practices and in fact giving them competitive advantage. I must say that this is something about which I feel quite strongly, because it is the result of some years of research that led to a book I co-authored with Michael Kerr and Chip Pitts on corporate social responsibility.
The drivers of corporate social responsibility are not simply the NGO groups, like those represented by Catherine, that seek to hold corporations accountable. It's also the fact that all the dimensions of Bill C-300 are risk factors for corporations that affect their own picture as investment vehicles. So the ability of this legislation to provide something like distant early warning of risks Canadian companies face is a way of building a reputation for Canadian companies abroad and their competitive advantage.
The second main question that has been raised is related to the first one, and that is whether Canadian companies will face high transaction costs. Will they face an awful lot of trouble associated with the complaints procedure? Will they be subject to tiresome and costly attacks on their reputations? Indeed, will that lead them to perhaps leave the country rather than stay in the country if they are facing such transaction costs? Will they pick up their stakes and move elsewhere? The answer we came to on that question was equally clear but somewhat nuanced, and it is as follows: no, that should not be the result of this legislation. In fact, if anything, the legislation will provide a context within which credible and legitimate airing of public concerns can take place, bearing in mind that Canadian mining companies are already subject to precisely this kind of scrutiny from abroad.
There is such a thing as a court of public opinion internationally. As you know, that court of public opinion internationally has translated into, for example, the Norwegian pension fund withdrawing its investments from Barrick Gold. If there's a credible, transparent, and legitimate process that allows Canadian companies to address concerns, if anything it should allow them to cut their costs and diminish the possible negative impacts of the assessments that are taking place in any event. However, and this is the nuance, it is possible that some companies are unwilling to invest in the process of addressing public concerns. They may indeed seek to escape from scrutiny by moving to other jurisdictions. The question, I suppose, for members of Parliament is, should legislation be framed to address the worst performers? That's the group that would be an issue.
I'll touch briefly upon two final questions. One is extraterritoriality and the other is the problem of sanction.
In simple terms, this is not extraterritorial legislation. It is legislation that applies to the instrumentalities of the Canadian government. It's a matter of keeping the Canadian government itself accountable for the use of public moneys through the Export Development Corporation and the Canada Pension Plan. Yes, there is the ability to gather information abroad, but that is something the Canadian government does all the time through its embassies and consulates. We see no dimension of this that extends past the point of international law. It's something we can get into in greater detail.
Finally, on the question of sanctions, is this punitive legislation? Is this legislation that would subject Canadian companies to the stick rather than the carrot and as a consequence face them with an inability to improve their performance? The answer to that is no. This legislation has to be seen in the context of all the measures that are being taken by the Canadian government, including, of course, the measures now announced with respect to the counsellor. We have the carrot in place.
The national round table made clear--and my colleague, Mr. Peeling, who will be speaking later, signed off on that document--that we also needed a way of ensuring that Canadian moneys were being spent responsibly and accountably when Canadian companies were failing to act upon the principles and issues. This is not a sanction; this is a matter of finding by ministers, who then turn it over to the Export Development Corporation and the Canada Pension Plan and ask them to implement their standards.
In conclusion, I'm proud as a Canadian citizen that Parliament is considering this legislation. We have an opportunity here to make a real contribution to international discussion. Following this discussion, I was contacted yesterday by a group from Argentina who have been following this debate. I know that groups from around the world are following this debate. The eyes of the world, in a manner of speaking, are on this committee. I very much hope that you will see your way clear to making this legislation a reality.