Why it matters

Every piece, brought together, so major projects move with less risk.

The risks that stop projects rarely look like compliance problems at first. They show up as a question about consent, a protest at the gate, or a shipment held at a border. Any of them can stop a project, stall a financing or make the news. Each one maps to one of our four disciplines, and they rarely arrive alone.

At home in Canada

Where the risks meet a project, and who handles them.

  • Indigenous and community engagement

    Indigenous rights and consent

    Section 35 of the Constitution protects Aboriginal and treaty rights, and Canada’s UN Declaration Act commits Ottawa to aligning federal law with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2019 a UN committee urged Canada to halt three BC projects until free, prior and informed consent was obtained. These questions follow a project whatever any one government decides.

  • Engagement + compliance

    Impact assessments and benefit agreements

    Environmental and social reviews, and the impact and economic benefit agreements that come with them, decide whether a project has the support it needs to proceed. Weak engagement or vague benefit terms can stall approvals and strain relationships for years.

  • Stability + crisis communications

    Sites, blockades and protests

    How private security and police deal with protesters, land defenders and the public is now a legal, reputational and financing question. Injunction enforcement around BC resource projects has led to complaints, reviews and lawsuits, and those images reach investors and buyers fast.

  • Safety + community engagement

    Work camps and the workforce

    Large temporary workforces next to small and Indigenous communities raise real safety concerns. The 2019 National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls linked resource-sector work camps to increased violence, and proponents are now asked how they manage it.

  • Compliance

    Supply chains

    Since January 2024, Canada’s forced labour supply-chain law has required many large companies, and federal government institutions, to report every year by May 31 on the steps they take to prevent forced and child labour in what they produce, import or buy.

Across borders

Built to stand up to international scrutiny.

Wherever your buyers, lenders and regulators are, the work has to be lawful, documented and auditable to international standards. That is the standard we build to.

  • Compliance

    Import bans

    The U.S. presumes goods tied to Xinjiang or listed companies were made with forced labour and stops them at the border unless the importer proves otherwise. The EU’s ban on products made with forced labour applies from December 14, 2027.

  • All four disciplines

    Lenders and investors

    Banks that apply the Equator Principles, and investors using the IFC Performance Standards, ask for security and social risk assessments wherever the project is. Weak answers slow financing down.

  • Compliance

    European due diligence

    The EU’s corporate due diligence law now applies to the largest companies from July 2029, and their suppliers will be asked for evidence.

  • All four disciplines

    Canadian companies abroad

    Canadian companies operating or buying overseas are expected to follow Canada’s responsible business conduct guidance, and complaints about some sectors can be taken to the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise.

The Voluntary Principles

VPSHR, in plain terms.

The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights are a short international standard, created in 2000, for keeping a project secure without harming the people around it. They cover three things:

  • Risk assessment: who could be harmed by your security arrangements, and how.
  • Police and public security: agreeing expectations, rules on the use of force, and what happens after an incident.
  • Private security: vetting, training, contracts and oversight of guards and contractors.

Canada is one of the participating governments, and in 2017 members of the Mining Association of Canada became the first national industry association to commit to implementing them. Outside mining they are less familiar, but the same questions apply to ports, pipelines, LNG, rail and infrastructure.

Why you should care

What it means for each of you.

  • Project owners and operators

    Fewer incidents and stoppages, and fewer surprises for your board, your lenders and your buyers.

  • Lenders and investors

    Evidence you can rely on for due diligence and reporting, and fewer delays before financial close.

  • Governments and Crown corporations

    Public projects and procurement face the same questions, plus your own reporting duties under the forced labour law.

  • Indigenous Nations

    A clear standard to hold partners to, and to apply to your own security and workforce as an owner or partner.

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