Canada

Launched in 2008, PWYP Canada has 15 member organisations, hosted by IMPACT. Given the important role that Canadian extractive companies play at home and around the world, PWYP Canada has focused efforts on obtaining mandatory payment disclosure standards for companies registered or publicly traded in Canada. In 2012 the coalition formed the Resource Revenue Transparency Working Group, to work with industry and fellow NGOs to negotiate a framework for mandatory reporting of payments to government in Canada. In response, the Canadian government committed in 2013 to put in place mandatory payment reporting standards by April 2015 for oil, gas and mining companies publicly listed, registered and operating in Canada. Since then, Quebec has become the first province to commit to work with the federal government to develop complementary standards through the provincial stock exchange. PWYP Canada has subsequently focused on ensuring that the Canadian federal government introduces strong mandatory reporting standards, aligned with those in other jurisdictions, and that follow open data standards. It also encourages other provinces to follow Quebec’s lead. Information (taxes, royalties, fees, production entitlements, bonuses, dividends, infrastructure improvement payments) that is reported through the Canadian rule can be found on the Natural Resources Canada website or for all reporting jurisdictions click here.

To enable CSOs to locate, use and disseminate publicly available information about Canadian extractive companies, the coalition has developed guides, conducted workshops and examined payment data of select companies. This is particularly important in light of new regulation increasing the information extractive companies must divulge.

The coalition continues to support the implementation of the EITI in Canada and maintains close contact with Canada’s civil society representative on the EITI board. In addition, PWYP-Canada advocates for the disclosure of the contracts signed between extractive companies and host governments.

Currently, PWYP Canada is actively working with Transparency International Canada and Canadians for Tax Fairness to call for a publicly available centralized registry of the beneficial owners of all companies registered, listed, and operating in Canada, both provincially and federally.