ONE Welcomes Passage of Anti-Corruption Legislation in Canada

OTTAWA – The ONE Campaign welcomes the passage of the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act in Canada, a new law establishing mandatory reporting standards for oil, gas, and mining companies. This law requires all publicly listed and large private oil, gas, and mining companies to publicly disclose the payments they make to governments for the extraction of natural resources. The Canadian law is similar to legislation already passed in the European Union and United States.

Canada has more than 2,000 oil, gas, and mining companies that operate in more than 100 countries around the world.

Tom Hart, North American Executive Director of ONE, said:

We are delighted this legislation passed and thank Prime Minister Harper for his leadership in proposing and moving it into law.

This legislation helps establish an international standard for the extractive industries, marking a significant step forward in the global effort to fight corruption. We commend the Canadian government for being a global leader in empowering citizens around the world with information that they can use to hold governments accountable. The transformative potential of natural resources like oil, gas, and minerals – if used effectively – is enormous, especially in poor countries. Revenues from these resources offer the promise of financing social investments and boosting economic growth.

But, all too often, their economic potential is squandered through shady deals and mismanagement, both of which are enabled by secrecy. Greater transparency can help ensure that resource revenues are invested in people, through improved schools and hospitals and services, that improve lives and help to lift them out of extreme poverty. We look forward to working with the various interested parties in Canada to implement the law in the strongest way possible, including by ensuring that such implementation includes project-level disclosure, an element of critical importance for rooting out corruption and for aligning the Canadian law with those already on the books in the EU and US.

Key details of the law’s implementation will be finalized by means of an administrative guidance document, which will be drafted through a multi-stakeholder process.