Enhancing corporate standing, shifting blame: An examination of Canada's Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act

Ciupa, Kristin; Zalik, Anna

doi:10.1016/j.exis.2020.07.018

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…EIs are commonly criticized for a lack of standardization of accounting and reporting (Luther, 1996; Gray et al , 2019), which suggests the fragility of the green network in sustainability reporting in EIs, as well as explaining why sustainability goals are challenging in this sector. Ciupa and Zalik (2020) argue that limited standardization in reporting among Canadian firms has resulted in difficulties in evaluating results across divergent spatial and national contexts or in comparing between the kinds of payments that firms make to national or local governments.…”

Section: Accounting Infrastructure and Promissory Sustainable Extract...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting infrastructure and promissory sustainable extractive industries: an actor-network theory analysis

Tran

Nguyen

Lemma

2023

MEDAR

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Purpose This study aims to articulate the conceptual foundations of the role of accounting infrastructure (calculative practice and the communicative dimension of accounting) in extractive industries (EIs) towards a sustainable orientation from an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective. Design/methodology/approach This study is a literature-based analysis of the calculative property and communicative dimension of accounting in EIs, using the concepts of calculability, assemblage and other related concepts from ANT to identify potentialities and limits of the roles of accounting in this sector. Findings While accounting infrastructure can influence social and environmental outcomes, it has not, as yet, led to ecologically and socially sustainable practices in EIs. Calculative properties and the communicative dimension of accounting infrastructure have capabilities to foster the phenomenon of “sustainability” in EIs by valuing, disclosing (reporting) and governing EIs towards a sustainable orientation. Conceptualizing sustainable EIs as a promissory economy, accounting infrastructure serves as a tool not only to represent past performance but also to enact the future: it helps to shape a sustainable future for the industry by informing and triggering behavioural decisions of EIs firms towards sustainable practices. Research limitations/implications This conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future sustainability accounting research. The research agenda discussed in this paper can be used to enrich our understanding of the role of accounting in sustainability. Originality/value This paper charts a direction for future research by interpreting the role of sustainability accounting within networks of sociotechnical relations, using ANT concepts which attach importance to the dualism of nature and society. Conceptualizing sustainability accounting and reporting as an infrastructure, which draws more attention to the relationality characteristic of accounting, the study goes beyond the traditional interpretation of accounting as a mediation device and draws on a contemporary view of accounting by invoking the dynamic relation between accounting and society, in the context of EIs.

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Section: Accounting Infrastructure and Promissory Sustainable Extract...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting infrastructure and promissory sustainable extractive industries: an actor-network theory analysis

Tran

Nguyen

Lemma

2023

MEDAR

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“…ESTMA mandates transparency, but it is not without criticisms, such as providing a lower verification standard than is required for annual financial statements, being weakly enforced, and excluding activities beyond oil, gas, and minerals, such as pipelines and exploration (Bildfell, 2016; Ciupa and Zalik, 2020). Payments reported under ESTMA must be disclosed on a cash basis, which is at odds with an accrual basis of financial reporting.…”

Section: The Evolution Of Estmamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For more than a decade, Canada's reputation has suffered alongside that of Canadian extractive companies facing allegations of human rights violations, financial crimes, and environmental abuses in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Western Canada (Deneault and Sacher, 2012; Ciupa and Zalik, 2020). For example, Gordon and Webber (2016) accuse the Canadian state of employing tactics to silence complaints by Latin American communities, and of advancing the interests of Canadian multinationals in the extractive industry.…”

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confidence: 99%

Extractive Sector Stakeholders' Perspectives of the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA)^*

Brown

Kenno

Lau

et al. 2021

Accounting Perspectives

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This commentary considers stakeholder perspectives of Canada's Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA). In 2015, ESTMA was enacted under Canada's corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy as a mandatory CSR reporting initiative requiring the financial disclosure of all payments relating to the commercial development of oil, gas, or minerals around the globe. Despite ESTMA's intended purpose to improve transparency and deter corruption within the global extractive sector, little remains known about the acceptance of this mandatory CSR initiative by extractive sector stakeholders. Success of this government initiative likely hinges upon stakeholder acceptance of ESTMA. This study reports the results of a survey of industry stakeholders, including managers, practitioners, and academics, on whether ESTMA positively or negatively affects transparency, financial performance, reputation, decision making, and the ability of firms to do business abroad. Findings indicate stakeholders in Canada believe ESTMA has improved transparency and has had a positive effect on the reputation of Canadian firms in the extractive sector with minimal costs to financial performance, changes to decision making, or effect on ability to conduct business abroad. Using a Canadian context, the findings provide important insights for regulators and practitioners, among other stakeholders, to better understand the effects of mandatory CSR initiatives, as well as the use of legislated financial disclosures as a CSR mechanism.

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“… 8. Such bailout strategies and policy-protected immunity can be flagged across the corporate spectrum in Canada, in the automotive (Fowler, 2012) and mining sectors (Ciupa and Zalik, 2020). …”

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confidence: 99%

Deadwood: People, place, and neoliberal forest policy in British Columbia, Canada

Earley

2023

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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This article describes the people and forests in traditional Secwépemc territory in the Interior Plateau of British Columbia (BC), Canada. It examines the intersection of neoliberal forest policy and profound ecological change in the south-central region of the province, with careful attention paid to the wider contexts of settler colonialism. The article critiques the implementation of forest policy reform (the Forest and Range Practices Act, enacted in 2004) as it coincided with one of the first major climate change events of landscape-altering magnitude in BC – the mountain pine beetle outbreak. Between 1998 and 2014, the outbreak resulted in tree mortality for roughly half of the mature lodgepole pine trees in the province. It left an expanse of ‘deadwood’ on the landscape, leading to heightened social and political conflict over how the beetle-affected areas were managed. Research methods include transcripts from a public hearing in Tk’emlúps/Kamloops, supplemented by eighteen semi-structured interviews. The article argues that the confluence of neoliberal forest policy and climate change has further entrenched the settler colonial and corporate capture of forests.

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Enhancing corporate standing, shifting blame: An examination of Canada's Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

Accounting infrastructure and promissory sustainable extractive industries: an actor-network theory analysis

Accounting infrastructure and promissory sustainable extractive industries: an actor-network theory analysis

Extractive Sector Stakeholders' Perspectives of the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA)^*

Deadwood: People, place, and neoliberal forest policy in British Columbia, Canada

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Enhancing corporate standing, shifting blame: An examination of Canada's Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

Accounting infrastructure and promissory sustainable extractive industries: an actor-network theory analysis

Accounting infrastructure and promissory sustainable extractive industries: an actor-network theory analysis

Extractive Sector Stakeholders' Perspectives of the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA)*

Deadwood: People, place, and neoliberal forest policy in British Columbia, Canada

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Extractive Sector Stakeholders' Perspectives of the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA)^*