Mining bill defeated in House

News — 02 November 2010

Bill C-300 has gone through third reading in the House of Commons, and was defeated by a vote of 140 to 134 on Oct. 27.

Bill C-300 was put forward by Liberal MP John McKay, as an act respecting corporate accountability for Canadian mining, oil and gas corporations in developing countries.

The bill as presented, was aimed at more corporate accountability in Canadian mining companies working internationally. The bill would have given any citizen the right to lodge a complaint against the mining company, with little reason, and could potentially blacklist the accused company in the stock market.

As a private members bill, leaders do not normally vote on these matters, but do have the ability if they choose.

“In the end, the numbers tell us a couple things. First of all, there were a couple of Bloc and NDP members, who by abstention is what passed this bill,” says Greg Rickford, MP for the Kenora Riding. “But, it’s worth pointing out that the core group of Ignatieff people, himself included, the finance critic, the former finance critic, and Martha Hall Finley, none of them were at the vote.”

“I’m never there for private members business, I didn’t pick that one out of the lot,” replied Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Opposition. “Leaders don’t take positions on private members business. I’ve made my own position clear on 300, which is we think the mining sector needs to follow great standards and corporate social responsibility, but we don’t want to tie the mining sector in knots. We know how important it is to jobs and opportunity right throughout Canada, but especially in northern Canada.”

Ignatieff goes on to state, “So what we’ve said about this is, lets get an ombudsman, for example, and the mining sector agreed to that three years ago; the Conservatives have done nothing about it, we think that ombudsman working so that when people have complaints about the mining sector behavior, there’s someone they can go to and we work through it.”

Rickford claims this is not always true, and says the Liberal leader was present for the vote on the long-gun registry, among others.

“They’re Liberal bills, whether they’re private members business or not, and on an inconsistent basis he [Ignatieff] comes in and votes for some and doesn’t vote for others,” remarks Rickford.

“In winning the vote, there is confidence in the House that we’re on the right track,” says Rickford. “The commitments our governments have made to corporate social responsibility with respect to mining companies, and their activities both here and abroad are being dealt with.”

By Ally Dunham

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