Thank you for that. I'll try to answer the several pieces to it.
As I mentioned, we've been engaged in the dialogue. In connection with environmental standards, there was clarity. The IFC and World Bank have worked on it, and the OECD's common approaches have identified various standards, and those are clear enough for companies to actually be able to deal with and sign up to in terms of covenants and the management practices they have to follow. But we believe that other than the three parts of the IFC performance standards that deal tangentially with human rights, the human rights standards are not clear enough yet, including who should be responsible for various aspects of human rights, as well as, for example, human rights, including a general right to water. A company can't deal with that as well as a local government can. So we think the standards the bill is trying to apply are not defined well enough yet.
I think they will be as CSR evolves. I think that John Ruggie or an institution such as the IFC will eventually be able to reach a position where they can say that a consensus has been reached on a standard, or standards, that should be applied to human rights. We think Canada is trying to do that ahead of the rest of the world and that it will jeopardize our Canadian companies with a standard that's not clear enough and with which no one will be able to get comfortable and apply.
EDC standards are very clear, and that's how we've been able to implement them and put them in loan agreements and make them covenants and why we've been able to say to somebody, “We cannot support you”, and to make a decision that's clear enough for everyone to understand.
But another big piece of it is the ability to work with a company. This bill requires us to exit if a determination is made, even if we might come to a different decision, or even if other lenders or independent engineers, or anyone else, comes to a different decision. We don't think the international marketplace can live with that.
So if EDC is in a deal and has $100 million on the table as part of a $500 million facility, and we're required to exit, the lenders would then be in a situation where the company would not be fully funded. They would never let that happen: they would make that decision right at the very beginning, so EDC would not be able to get to the table because of the fact that we would have to add the requirement that we could get out if the government made a determination. So that's why we believe our ability to actually play a role will be severely compromised. Companies will just not come to us and ask for help, because their other lenders won't let them and their company won't let them. There will just be too much uncertainty.
But we do support the evolution in this area. As I say, we're going to a meeting next week and we have been a participant in the dialogue. As I mentioned, I think it is going to evolve. When it does, we will be one of the leaders in applying the new standards that have been reached on a consensus basis, just as we have in many, many other areas, including the environment, anti-corruption, and anti-terrorism.