International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure to be here again before the members of this committee. This time, I'm here with two FOCAL researchers. We will all be happy to answer questions about our brief, which we have prepared and sent to you, in support of Bill C-46. Just let m

Foreign Affairs committee  They're voluntary until they're written into the covenants of the loans. They're voluntary in the sense that companies agree to use them, but when they do, they write them into the covenants of the loans. They will not lend for projects where companies do not have in place enviro

Foreign Affairs committee  This is what we're getting to. I think that you have a moment. I think that both sides of the table are seized. I think you have everyone's attention and there's the opportunity to do this right, to do something that will.... In the end, you really want to improve conditions on

Foreign Affairs committee  But you also have issues in terms of the materials that will be used to create the standards: the IFC policy, the performance standards, and global human rights, but also “any other standard consistent with international human rights standards”. That's a little broad. If I were

Foreign Affairs committee  Point taken.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think we just went over that, but it's a major concern. The reading of the bill by others—including outside of the committee and outside of Ottawa, in the mining industry, and not just in Canada but also at the IFC and elsewhere—had quite a few of my former colleagues at multil

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a public op ed, a public piece that we had out. It's available on the website.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that is a more constructive and more productive discussion in terms of the possibility to really...taking any of these potential items at random, not signifying preference. But it would be a competitive advantage for Canadian industries if done correctly, adding to best p

Foreign Affairs committee  My coming to CSR--and I'm glad you brought this up--comes from the aspect of companies seeking to gain advantage by doing the right thing. So the companies I've worked with get it. The vast majority of companies get it. There are still some neanderthals out there who will never g

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a very interesting point. You raise something of significance and potential significant impact. Allegations that are handled at the point of origination of a financing entity or the entity that's working directly with the project, such as the International Finance Corpora

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, Parliament. The Canadian Parliament.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, the investigations deal with all aspects of Canada's involvement in the Americas: trade, education, health and the companies' social responsibility. So it is the whole range of Canada's activities in the Americas, and in the United States. From time to time, we do something i

Foreign Affairs committee  No, not at all. We work with companies as part of our research, for example, the research on CSR practices. We did an investigation into companies. We do things like that. But it's not promotion of companies.

Foreign Affairs committee  There is also another aspect to Canada's involvement in the Americas. It is important. Most of the time, we think that the government is the driving force for our involvement. But really, there is only one embassy in Mexico and three or four consulates. But there are 200 branches

Foreign Affairs committee  I was at the round tables too. I spoke and I put forward some ideas. I think it was in Montreal last November, if I remember correctly. I was one of the people invited to the round table. I remember— there was opposition. What came out of the round tables was the enhancing of th