Canada - Bad kids at the open government table! OGP and extractive industries
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Canada - Bad kids at the open government table! OGP and extractive industries
 
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Illuminating contrast between Canada and the UK below.
Miles
Miles Litvinoff Coordinator | Publish What You Pay UK t: +44 (0)1442 825060 m: +44 (0)7984 720103 Skype: miles_litvinoff
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/06/19/whos-influencing-extractive-industry-transparency-policy-thats-a-secret/Who’s influencing extractive industry transparency policy? That’s a secretBy James Munson | Jun 19, 2014 5:00 am |
In supreme bureaucratic irony, the public won’t get a full picture of who is influencing the design of a federal policy on resource-sector transparency, despite international guidelines on open government that demand a complete disclosure of lobby groups. Ottawa has received thirty-two submissions that advise the government on how the Mandatory Reporting Standards for the Extractive Sector should be amended, but Natural Resources Canada won’t publish them online at the request of their authors, said a department spokesperson. The secrecy would be odd enough given the consultations deal with transparency in the mining and petroleum industries, but there is an added layer of peculiarity because the submissions were gathered under the Treasury Board’s high-profile Open Government action plan. The plan, heavily promoted by Treasury Board President Tony Clement as a historic shift in how the public can relate to their government thanks to advances in communication technology like Twitter, has guidelines outlined by the international Open Government Partnership. These guidelines say that consultations performed under the plan must be published online, or that the government must at least provided a summary, according to Paul Maassen, civil society coordinator for the Open Government Partnership Hub in The Hague, Netherlands. “The official guidelines on this one is countries have to at least publish a summary of the submissions they receive…and in principle put all submissions online,” said Maassen, whose group works closely with the partnership.
Countries are to make a summary of the public consultation and individual written comment should be made available online if possible. – See more at: http://www.opengovpartnership.org/how-it-works/requirements#sthash.ckwRhaL8.dpuf The submissions outline comments on how Ottawa should go about launching the Mandatory Reporting Standards for the Extractive Sector. The standards will require mining and petroleum companies to publish documents with a regulatory agency that outline all payments to governments. They are part of an international effort, started by the United States and Europe, to weaken corruption in the extractive business. Natural Resources Canada released proposed rules earlier this year and took in submissions until May 9. But only 15 submissions — eleven documents and three comments from individuals — have been published online. “The department has published submissions when the senders have provided permission to do so,” wrote departmental spokesperson Jacinthe Perras in an email. “Please note that information submitted to the department is collected, used and disclosed in accordance with the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.” The total tally of 46 submissions come from groups as diverse as provincial and territorial governments, industry associations, civil society, investors, aboriginal representatives and private citizens, wrote Perras. Until Wednesday, one group that declined to publish its submission was the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), the country’s largest oil and gas industry group. After several email exchanges with the association’s media team last week, CAPP did not reply to a request to provide its submission. On Wednesday afternoon, CAPP’s submission, along with that of Talisman Energy Inc., was published online. Two industry groups – the Mining Association of Canada and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada – have been working with civil society groups over the past two years to design the new transparency measures, a stark difference compared to the preference for secrecy in other parts of the private sector. “Taking steps to ensure transparency of written submissions was critical, not only to the government fulfilling its obligations under the Open Government Partnership, but more broadly to ensure the integrity of the initiative itself,” said Claire Woodside, director of Publish What You Pay Canada, one of the civil society groups that partnered with the miners on the reporting standards. The government has been practicing openness with a double standard since unveiling its Open Government plan, said MP Charmaine Borg, the New Democrats’ critic for open government. “We’ve seen a lot of double-speak from the government when it comes to open data,” said Borg on Wednesday. “We’ve seen them publish a bunch of data sets that no one is actually searching for, and on the other hand not being able to disclose budgetary information.” The United Kingdom, also a member of the Open Government Partnership, did not promise confidentiality to those who submitted comments in its consultation for extractive sector transparency standards. Rather, it requires groups to explain why they want their comments kept secret. “If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances,” says the country’s consultation paper. “The UK is one country that does it really well,” said Maassen. If Canada is going to seek a seat on the Open Government Partnership’s steering committee, a rumour that Maassen has heard, the issues related to the extractive transparency laws should matter, he said. “You would expect (Canada) to be a shining example,” said Maassen. The government is drafting the mandatory reporting standards this summer and plans to introduce them as legislation in September.
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