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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY a private road. It is the same story everywhere you do business." The climate for financing mining has been tough for the last couple of years, he acknowledges, with many companies cutting their budgets and freezing capital expenditures. "But generally, I find even in the tough times people are still committed to CSR. "Don't forget, in a lot of places, particularly in Africa and South America, if you're paying royalties or you're paying taxes those monies are not coming to build roads, infrastructure, schools, water wells, etc. The government keeps the money. So you really have to look after your people and your population by providing all those services and all the attachables." Sabine, the former chairman of Anvil Mining Ltd. until it was taken over in 2012, says in his time "we had a microfinance program for women, we set up marketplaces, we set up schools and staffed them. Those are all the things you have to do to fit in the community and be responsible, otherwise you're going to have a lot of problems with your operations." While that is clearly the reality in the often remote areas where so much mining is done, a new iteration of CSR is emerging from the steel and glass towers that house mining companies the world over. It's an iteration forged in the fiascos of companies like Nike and Apple — and it's all about business. CSR is no longer just about responsibility to the local community. Today's CSR is increasingly unIt has become a requirement of doing business at all levels derpinned by the expectation that BY SANDRA RUBIN companies will take responsibility for the social and environmental impact along their entire supply chain. CANADA IS A WORLD leader in mining financing. And when In other words, it's no longer only about building roads and schools it comes to corporate social responsibility (CSR), Canadian lawyers but also a matter of contracts, codes and covenants. will be the first to tell you mining companies face a delicate balancing CSR is starting to cut across all types of transactional law, says Edact between global standards and local needs. ward Waitzer, who heads the Corporate Governance Group at StikeCSR has moved into the boardroom. But it still starts in the field. man Elliott LLP. "Wherever you go globally – and I was chairman of a company "You see it in any M&A transaction involving assets in foreign that operated in Africa, and I've been doing deals for clients in South jurisdictions especially in jurisdictions where corruption is an issue," America and in Canada for decades – mining companies all need to says Waitzer, a former chairman of the Ontario Securities Commisbuild community involvement," says John Sabine, counsel to Bennett sion. "When you are buying assets you're also buying potential liabiliJones LLP. "You are not going to construct a mine anywhere nowa- ties. You see it in project finance. You see it in mining development. days without the local community being included every step of the You see it in doing business in foreign jurisdictions where norms may way and right there with you. be different." "You have to discuss things like what infrastructure you are goWhen it comes to corporate social responsibility, he says, "I think ing to put in, how you are going to train the kids and what you are there is still more talk than action. But to the extent the talk reflects going to do for them, what services you are going to provide. If you social norms or ethical behaviours, it's a pretty reliable indicator of are putting in a road to carry ore, it has got to be both a public and just where the law is going. And it is going there pretty quickly." Corporate Social p Requirements 20 LEXPERT | 2013/14 | WWW.LEXPERT.CA

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