ONE Welcomes Canadian Commitment to New Global Transparency Standard

WASHINGTON (June 12, 2013) — The ONE Campaign welcomes the announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the Government of Canada will establish new mandatory reporting standards for Canadian extractive companies. This comes on the same day that the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve new European rules requiring oil, gas, mining, and logging companies to publish the payments they make to foreign governments. The United States finalized similar rules last year.

Tom Hart, ONE’s North America Executive Director, said:

“Today, Canada took an important step forward in the march toward a new global transparency standard in the oil, gas, and mining industries. Prime Minister Harper and his government demonstrated leadership and commitment and deserve praise for taking this strong action.

With 75% of the world’s mining companies and 35% of oil companies globally, Canada’s announcement will have a significant impact in ensuring that the world’s poorest citizens have access to information critical for holding their governments to account for the use of natural resource revenues.

The ONE Campaign, along with its many civil society partners, looks forward to working with Canadian federal and provincial governments, industry, and First Nations and Aboriginal groups to implement rules that are consistent with the EU and US rules. ”

About ONE

ONE is a global advocacy and campaigning organisation backed by more than 3 million people from around the world dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. For more information please visit www.ONE.org.

ONE is part of the Publish What You Pay coalition of over 650 civil society organisations worldwide calling for greater transparency in oil, gas and mining. www.publishwhatyoupay.org.

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