Recommendations on Mandatory Disclosure of Payments from Canadian Mining Companies to Governments

In recognition of Canada’s impact on global resource governance, the Mining Association of Canada, the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada, Publish What You Pay Canada, and the Revenue Watch Institute jointly formed the Resource Revenue Transparency Working Group (the “Working Group”) in September of 2012. The objective of the Working Group is to develop a reporting framework for Canadian extractive companies – with the overarching goal of establishing greater transparency in the mining sector in Canada and overseas. The access to information resulting from the implementation of the Working Group’s recommended framework is meant to provide citizens around the world with the tools they need to achieve accountable, responsible and transparent management of natural resource development. Specifically, the Working Group seeks to develop a framework that, implemented by a regulatory body, would require Canadian mining companies to publicly disclose the payments they make to governments in every country in which they operate, disaggregated by project.