Althea Elise Reyes
DARE Project: Canadian Overseas Mining Regulations: Extractives Industry Responses to Recent Reforms
Program(s) of Study: International Development Studies
Project Supervisor: Richard Saunders
What I enjoyed most about my DARE experience was being able to piece together a puzzle, akin to conducting a real investigation. This topic has not yet been thoroughly researched, so my role in putting the facts together and following a paper trail led me to uncover telling information about how CORE and ESTMA came to be, whose interests were prioritized, and how their respective strengths and weaknesses still leave room for error in corporate accountability.
Project Description:
Canada has been a leader in the development of legislative and regulatory measures to enhance transparency and encourage corporate social responsibility by national mining firms overseas. Recent initiatives, including the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA) of 2015 and the Canadian Ombudsman for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) of 2018, have promised to improve financial and contract transparency, strengthen miner-host country trust, and open paths to constructive engagement with host governments, communities and civil society organizations. These moves come at a time of policy flux in many mineral-rich developing countries that are experiencing a wave of ‘resource nationalism’, in which local governments, businesses, mining communities and policy activists are demanding greater local distribution of benefits from foreign mining. The proposed research project, which complements a longer-term study by Prof. Saunders into the impact of Canadian mining law reform in Africa, will investigate the initial responses to ESTMA, CORE and other government initiatives by Canadian miners operating in East and Southern Africa. The project asks what steps miners have taken to adjust their practices in the wake of government reforms; how they see these changes affecting their current and future African mining operations; what problems have emerged (if any) with compliance; and what recommendations for code revisions and further reforms have been put forward by Canadian miners in specific response to recent government regulatory changes.The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) - Undergraduate enables our students to meaningfully engage in research projects supervised by LA&PS faculty members. Find out more about DARE.