Global efforts to shed more light on the financial dealings in the extractive industry took a major step forward this month with the enactment of a new transparency law in Canada. Greater visibility into the money being paid to developing country governments can improve accountability and help better mobilize domestic resources to tackle development challenges.
The Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act requires all publicly listed and large Canadian oil, gas and mining companies to publish detailed records of the payments they make to foreign governments. The measure is estimated to cover the nearly 2,000 natural resource companies whose businesses are registered in Canada or whose shares are listed on Toronto’s stock exchange.
ESTMA entering into force June 1 is the latest boost for extractive industry transparency campaigns which seek to hold governments and companies accountable for the vast sums of money exchanged for the rights to develop natural resources. Those revenues function as the lifeblood for the resource-rich economies of developing countries, but details are often scant about precisely how much money governments take in and how they appropriate those funds. That opacity typically breeds suspicions of wasteful spending, bribery and graft.
About the author
Naki B. Mendozamfbmendoza
Naki is a former reporter, he covered the intersection of business and international development. Prior to Devex he was a Latin America reporter for Energy Intelligence covering corporate investments and political risks in the region’s energy sector. His previous assignments abroad have posted him throughout Europe, South America, and Australia.