The establishment of the Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Counsellor was a key component of the Government of Canada’s 2009 CSR Strategy.
Following extensive cross-country and multi-sector consultations, an enhanced CSR strategy was released in November 2014, which strengthened Canada’s leadership and well-earned reputation for responsible resource development at home and abroad.
The strategy, entitled Canada’s Enhanced CSR Strategy: Doing Business the Canadian Way: A Strategy to Advance CSR in Canada’s Extractive Sector Abroad, increases specific enhanced training for Canada’s diplomatic network around the world to ensure a consistent and high level of CSR-related services and support to Canadian businesses.
The strategy also refocuses the role and efforts of the Office of the Extractive Sector CSR Counsellor on preventing, identifying and resolving disputes in their early stages and on enhancing the office’s mandate to ensure that CSR guidelines and best practices are reflected in and incorporated into extractive sector companies’ operating approach abroad.
In situations where parties to a dispute would benefit from formal mediation, the CSR counsellor will encourage them to refer their issue to Canada’s National Contact Point (NCP), a robust and proven dispute resolution mechanism that is guided by the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on responsible business conduct and is active in 46 countries.
Companies are expected to align with CSR guidelines and will be recognized by the CSR Counsellors’ Office as eligible for enhanced Government of Canada economic diplomacy. For companies that do not embody CSR best practices and refuse to participate in the dispute resolution processes of the CSR Counsellor’s Office or the NCP, Government of Canada support in foreign markets will be withdrawn.
