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| Name | Looking Beneath the Surface: An Assessment of the Value of Public Support for the Metal Mining Industry in Canada |
| Author(s) | Winfield, Mark, Catherine Coumans, Joan Newman Kuyek, François Meloche, and Amy Taylor |
| Editor | |
| Year | 2002 |
| Publication Type | Report |
| Web Location | http://www.cbern.ca/kr/One.aspx?objectId=15477990&contextId=677979&lastCat=10539794 |
| Keywords | MiningWatch, mining, environment, social and economic sustainability, public policy, investment, expenditures, liabilities, risks |
| Areas of Interest | Accountability - Certification; Development; Economic - Environmental; Economic - Social; Public Policy; Resource Extraction; SRI/Responsible Investment; Sustainability |
| Citation | Winfield, Mark, Catherine Coumans, Joan Newman Kuyek, Francois Meloche, and Amy Taylor. 2002. Looking Beneath the Surface: An Assessment of the Value of Public Support for the Metal Mining Industry in Canada. Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development and MiningWatch Canada. |
| Summary | Mining has been portrayed as a sector that "built" Canada. The industry commonly refers to this history while asserting its continuing importance to the Canadian economy. But the industry must now also face questions about its environmental, social and economic sustainability. |
| Abstract / Description | Mining has
been portrayed as a sector that "built" Canada. The industry commonly
refers to this history while asserting its continuing importance to the
Canadian economy. But the industry must now also face questions about
its environmental, social and economic sustainability. Public
expenditures once viewed as laudable support for a key industry are now
being questioned domestically and internationally as distortions of
investment signals and market prices, while promoting unsustainable
patterns of resource consumption. There is also a growing question about
the "legality" of these expenditures in the context of the
international trade agreements to which Canada is a signatory.
Given these factors, questions must be asked as to whether public funds
should be spent to support primary resource extraction when investment
in other types of economic activity may provide for more sustainable
uses of natural resources and more sustainable employment in remote
communities now facing the disruptions of boom-and-bust cycles in
mining.
In this context, this report has three major objectives:
1. To document the level of government expenditures, and governmental
assumptions of liabilities and risks, in support of the metal mining
sector in Canada, including the identification of major gaps in
information regarding the nature and extent of these public
expenditures, liabilities and risks, and to identify changes in their
structure and levels over time;
2. To assess the economic benefits associated with the Canadian metal
mining industry as presented by governments and the mining industry, and
to document trends in the generation of benefits by the sector over
time; and
3. To present an assessment of the trends in public expenditures, and
assumptions of liability and risk, related to the metal mining sector in
Canada relative to the sector's economic benefits.
[from the Report Summary (http://www.miningwatch.ca/sites/www.miningwatch.ca/files/belowsummary-eng_0.pdf)] |
| Publisher/Organization | Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development and MiningWatch Canada |
| Cluster Library | Ethics of Resource Extraction; Governance Law and Public Policy; Socially Responsible Investment |
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