Evidence of meeting #19 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was standards.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Revenue Watch Institute
We work very cooperatively with the ICMM and other corporations in the EITI and other contexts.
Conservative
Conservative
Peter Goldring Conservative Edmonton East, AB
Ms. George, it had been mentioned in some papers that I have from Perrin Beatty, and it is my understanding as well, that your Canadian Chamber of Commerce has been an active player in Canada's contribution to the development of the ISO 26000 guidance on social responsibility. To understand the importance of this, there was a comment made previously that to voluntarily comply to certain standards is problematic, but ISO 9000 is known internationally and worldwide as a very desirable standard for businesses that can be lucky enough to subscribe to it and gain that listing. It is a credential for business dealing that is very well respected internationally. Should they develop this same standard for the ISO 26000, I'm sure that even though it's voluntary, by and large, it will be a good and marketable standard for a corporation to have.
Maybe you could comment on that, and also on where that ISO 26000 standard is at present. Would this not be, even at a preliminary stage, information that this committee should be apprised of, in order to know the direction they're going and so that we're not all, at the end of the day, in contradiction with this standard in this bill?
Senior Vice-President, Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Thank you.
The ISO 26000 is not a standard but guidance that is being put together through the ISO process. It's an international process that is looking at a set of guidelines to help not just companies but NGOs, government, and all organizations to behave in a socially responsible manner. It is a very complex topic. It is taking a long time for it to move forward in such a way that there's some agreement.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has been involved in other international corporate social responsibility forums for a number of years. We played a very, very active role in the good work that the OECD did on guidelines for multinational corporations. We continue to work in those kinds of venues.
We believe very strongly that there is a need for guidelines for companies and that it does bring them along. The example I used before, EITI , is a very good example of that.
If I may, Mr. Chair, there have been a lot of comments on what Mr. Ruggie has said about a very important study that's being done by the UN, and I'd like to make sure that the committee hears a little bit more of the context of what he has said. His work is going to be game-changing. As he releases his final report and countries start to implement it, it's going to be very important, and Canada is going to want to be part of that discussion.
He has said on corporations that “...companies cannot be held responsible for the human rights impacts of every entity over which they...have some influence, because this would include cases in which they are not the causal agent, direct or indirect, of the harm in question”. Just because they're located in the region does not make them responsible--sorry, that was my edit.
He continues, saying, “Nor is it desirable to have companies act whenever they have influence...”. Particularly, companies should not be going over governments. He says:
Asking companies to support human rights voluntarily where they have influence is one thing; but attributing responsibility to them on that basis alone is quite another. ...it is not [always] possible to specify definitive tests for what constitutes complicity in any given context.
This is an area that is difficult. It is one where the work of important organizations is moving forward. Canada needs to be part of that process. Canada should not be making Canadian companies get ahead of it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Goldring.
I thank our witnesses.
To Ms. George here in Ottawa, thank you very much.
To Ms. Martin and Mr. Hodge in the U.K., thank you for taking the time to be with us today.
To Ms. Lissakers from New York, thank you very much.
For those of you who would like to grab a little lunch before we get back to committee business, I'm going to suspend the meeting for about two minutes to go in camera
Thank you once again.
[Proceedings continue in camera]