Canada adopts payment disclosure rule for mining

Canadian mining companies will be required to disclose any payments made to foreign governments per a G8 initiative that is being adopted by Canada.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in London at a meeting with oil, gas and mining executives that Canada will adopt new mandatory reporting standards for payments made to foreign and domestic governments by Canadian companies in the extractive sector, CBC News reported.

“This has long been a priority for Canada. We put great emphasis in Canada on corporate social responsibility and through our various foreign aid programs we have assisted transparency in the extractive sector around the world,” Harper said at the meeting.

Leaders of the world’s eight richest nations pledged after their 2011 meeting in Deauville, France, to consider new rules that would allow for greater scrutiny of companies’ payments to foreign governments. Critics say such measures are badly needed to expose corruption in countries with an abundance of natural resource riches.

The United States already has similar measures in place under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Canadian companies are responsible for about half of the mining that takes place around the world and 60 percent of all the world’s mining and exploration companies, and 35 percent of all oil and gas companies, are listed on Canadian exchanges, CBC News reported.

Harper said Canada’s new standards will help transform the way industry reports payments worldwide. “This is a direction we’re determined to pursue because this information is essential for citizens to hold their government accountable,” he said.

Some companies already operate under similar standards, but now it is law.

The federal government will now consult with the provinces and territories, First Nations and aboriginal groups, industry and civil-society organizations as it sets up its reporting regime.