Foreign Affairs committee  Very briefly, poor performance by one can affect the reputation of all, and this legislation extends to all. It also means that industry associations will start investing in this problem.

Foreign Affairs committee  Right.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. Why did the mining industry, the prospectors and the mining associations, support the round table? Because it would provide something other than litigation. It would provide a process through which.... Okay, there could be complaints. There would be transparency. But

Foreign Affairs committee  Dare I say that there are some lessons all around us from the rubble of the financial crisis of what it means to think about a problem after the fact rather than before the fact. This is an opportunity for the mining industry and for Canada as a whole to approach a problem before

Foreign Affairs committee  I appreciate that we may not be on the same page, but I think the remarks I made and the analysis of the legislation don't have to do with casting aspersions upon EDC. They have to do with what the formal mechanisms of accountability are. People can do a great job within the exis

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, it's a stick, but one also hopes its existence can be a carrot in the sense that it sends a signal about what Canadians care about. It allows companies to put procedures in place for themselves to avoid attracting that legislation. I quote a better man than I, who is sittin

Foreign Affairs committee  First of all, with respect to the general point about what difference is made, what the provision in the legislation is that changes anything, we have tried in our report to give you a detailed—almost clause-by-clause—assessment of what is different between the current government

Foreign Affairs committee  Firstly, Bill C-300 has not simply come out of nowhere. It is an attempt to implement the round table recommendations. As I suspect the next witness will tell you, what frightens industry is the prospect of moving straightaway from a voluntary approach to a binding approach. The

Foreign Affairs committee  I understand the concern, and I think it's appropriate to do due diligence on legislation of this kind. But with all respect, I don't think that's the character of the legislation. We have reason to say that it's not the character of the legislation because there are parallel pr

Foreign Affairs committee  Before handing over to my colleague, I should say that I held observer status at the round tables, but that was the extent of my involvement.

Foreign Affairs committee  You've raised a very important question, Mr. Rae. My short answer is that I don't agree with the position that this is double jeopardy. Let's unwrap it a little bit. First of all, we're talking about international standards that are well recognized that would be applied through

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, it's a year, but these are standards.... By the way, as you know, the national round table made the recommendation that these standards be the ones used because they were well known and well recognized--

Foreign Affairs committee  They provide a framework that other countries are operating under. Let's take the example of Argentina. It's a good one. I was just on the phone yesterday with CEDHA, which you may know is an environmental and human rights group that was set up by the former environment ministe

Foreign Affairs committee  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,