Canada mali

Visit Amazon's Haytham Al Fiqi Page http://amzn.to/1Uaf9Mr
Canada in
Mali: Aid,
Gold, Cotton,
Migrationversion 20090922
Abstract—
Since 1990, Canada and Mali have persistently ranked among the
top and bottom five countries, respectively, on human development
indicators. Two starkly oppositional commentaries dominate their
inter-relationship. That of the Government of Canada and
corporate stakeholders is aspirational and future-looking, typified
by the phrase "win-win outcomes". From long-time observers
including Canadians Joan Baxter and Alain Deneault and the
Malian, Aminata Traoré, it is past- and present-looking, and
scathing: "dispossession", "pillage" and "plunder". This literature
review and analysis of state, corporate, civil society, academic
sources builds some empirical structure on the largely vacant
intervening terrain, as the impetus for increased disclosure and
transparency strengthens. One billion dollars (US) has entered the
Malian economy over the period 1996-2007 - roughly 3% to 4% of
GDP annually - directly from the Sadiola and Yatela gold mines,
which were discovered and are 38%-owned by the Canadian mid-

sized mining company, IAMGOLD Corporation. This represents
half of Malian gold revenue over this period. Mali has benefited
from cancelation of most of its external debt, reducing repayments
from 3.0% of GDP in 1997 to 1.3% in 2006. Despite the UN
predicting that its population growth rate is peaking this decade at
2.4% per annum, the IMF estimates that Mali's real GDP per capita
is rising even faster, at 3.4% per annum. The Human Development
Index for Mali has risen 2.2% annually from 2000-06, placing the
country among the top five most rapid improvers. Nevertheless,
another US$1.5bn. in Malian gold revenue from Sadiola has exited
the country, mainly to South Africa's Anglogold Ashanti Limited,
its South African partners and European investors, but also to
Canada, as IAMGOLD profits of US$260m. The Canada and
Quebec public pension plans invested a total of Cdn$69m. in
Canadian mining firms active in Mali during 2008. While these
plans earned ca. $1m. in IAMGOLD dividends from 2006 to 2008,
net earnings for all seven Canadian mining firms in Mali over this
period amounted to a net loss of ca. $3m. Over 1996-2007,
Canada provided US$383m. in official development aid to Mali, of
which approximately US$110-150m. returned to Canada in the
form of tied procurements. Mali has lost between US$100-200m.
in export revenue over the last decade, as Canada progressively
reduced its Malian imports from a peak of U$19m. in 1999 ($14m.,
cotton) to just U$0.4m in 2007 ($0, cotton). Mali's development
progress has been further hampered by Canada's restrictive
immigration quotas: if Canada proportionally mirrored France's
intake of legally registered Malian immigrants - 0.07% of the
French population as opposed to Canada's current 0.003% - these
workers' remittances to Mali would likely amount to C$20m. per
annum, or about one-third of current Canada-Mali official aid
levels. Reports of adverse health consequences experienced by
Malian citizens residing in communities adjacent to the part
Canadian-owned mines, which first came to light in 2003, remain
both unresolved and unreported in the mainstream Canadian news
media. A 2007 Pew Research Center opinion poll confirms the
disparities: when citizens of 44 nations were asked which steps on
the "ladder of life" they occupied, just 13% of Malians considered
themselves to be "high" in relative standing, compared to 71% of
Canadians. The review ends with fifteen recommendations.
http://kingwnd1.wix.com/book#!blog/rurmn
2 of 165

EPIGRAPHS
"SDS [Sustainable Development Strategy] Goal 2: To advance Canada's
position as a world leader in sustainable resource development and use. 2.1.
Canada is a competitive and responsible steward of natural resources. 2.1.1.
Best practices for sustainable development are shared with other countries.
2.1.4 Market opportunities are enhanced" -- Natural Resources Canada.
[Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, "Departmental Performance Reports
2007-2008. Natural Resources Canada", 10. Sustainable Development Strategy,
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/dpr-rmr/2007-2008/inst/rsn/st-ts07-eng.asp; http://sd-
aims.nrcan.gc.ca/english/index.aro].
"In over 100 countries [...] the exploration industry and the mining industry
[are] indeed the face of Canada internationally. Whether you like the face or
not, it's there [...] of course we have a problem with image [...] rightfully so,
about some of the problems that occur in some of the developing countries [...]
In an analysis done by the OECD and by the Export Development Corporation
here in Canada, they say that every dollar invested abroad by a mining company
brings a minimum of $2 back. Why? Because of all the services and supplies
from these other companies." -- Gary Nash, Assistant Deputy Minister,
Department of Natural Resources, Canada. [House of Commons, Canada,
Standing Committee on Natural Resources, "Evidence", 39th Parliament, 1st
session, June 1, 2006, p. 1-2, 14]
"Mining goes where the orebody is, not where capacity for governance exists"
-- André Bourassa, Natural Resources Canada. [Bourassa, André. "Mining
Sector Good Governance: Perspectives and Issues. Focus on Developing
Countries", conference presentation at: Rethinking Extractive Industry:
Regulation, Dispossession, and Emerging Claims, York University, Toronto, 5-
7 March 2009, Panel 7B, p. 8]
"We've often said that it would be a lot better if Natural Resources Canada saw
its clients as the public as well as industry, because it would mean a broader
perspective on matters" -- Joan Kuyek, National Coordinator, Mining Watch
3 of 165

Canada. [Standing Committee on Natural Resources, "Evidence", 39th
Parliament, 1st session, June 1, 2006, p. 5-6]
"the ethical insensitivity of the market [...] the moral ambiguity of a consuming
public that has always been quick to decry injustice, but also determined to
enjoy the fruits of the earth at the lowest prices possible" -- Carol Off, CBC
broadcaster. ["Bitter chocolate: investigating the dark side of the world's most
seductive sweet", Random House, 2006: 299]
"The 'natural frontiers' of Standard Oil, the Deutsche Bank or the De Beers
diamond corporation were at the end of the universe, or rather at the limits of
their capacity to expand" -- Eric Hobsbawm, historian. ["Age of extremes: the
short twentieth century, 1914-1991", London: Abacus, c1994; 2001: 30]
"I always wanted to be a policeman [...] But I didn't want to live on a
policeman's salary. I had to make some money first" -- Mark Nathanson,
founding partner and co-chairman of IAMGOLD, 1994-2004. [Cameron,
Stevie. "Corporate crime buster", Maclean's, 3/24/97, Vol. 110, Edition 12]
"Il était 7H du matin ce mercredi 21 janvier 2009 quand les participants de
Bamako à l'atelier de concertation et de communication des mines d’or de
Sadiola et de Yatéla, ont embarqué à bord de deux petits avion en destination de
Sadiola [...] Parmi les visiteurs figuraient entre autres le représentant du
ministre des mines de l'énergie et de l’eau, des honorables députés de
l'assemblée nationale, la nouvelle ambassadrice du Canada au Mali, des
hommes de medias et autres personnalités auxquels s'est ajoutée la délégation
régionale de Kayes chef lieu de région [...] Les travaux de l'atelier ont enregistré
trois interventions à savoir celle du DG de la mine de Sadiola , de
l'ambassadrice du Canada et le discours d’ouverture du MMEE prononcé par
son représentant Seydou Keïta" -- Oumou H Maiga. ["Atelier de concertation
des mines d'or de Sadiola et Yatela", 26 janvier 2009, afriquejet.com]
"By authorizing the appropriation of African mineral wealth in the name of
Canadians' "muscular white civility" (we have capital, technology, organization
and humane values), Canadians' privileged access and property rights are
maintained and normalized in contemporary African mining. A key finding of
this research is the inherently white supremacist nature of the Canadian twenty-
first century internationalist imaginary and the consequent reproduction of
North-South economic disparities structured along racial lines" -- Paula Joan
Butler. ["Violence as civility: race, mining and Canadian neocolonizers in
4 of 165

African states", Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Sociology and Equity Studies in
Education, University of Toronto, 2006: ii-iii]
"As Prime Minister Harper noted in Tanzania in November 2007, the
government encourages and expects Canadian companies to meet high
standards of corporate social responsibility. The Prime Minister acknowledged
that Canadian investment in the extractive sector abroad can result in a win-win
outcome both for the economy of Canada and those of resource-rich developing
countries, but that the extractive sector faces unique challenges in operating in
complex situations abroad." -- Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
["Building the Canadian Advantage: A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector", March 2009,
www.international.gc.ca]
"Nous sommes en 2015, en pays dogon, chez Altina [...] Des espaces de
dialogue et d’éducation civique, économique et politique existe dans chaque
localité [...] Le travail est réhabilité dans le cadre de l’économie réelle, celle qui
permet aux populations de tirer de leur environnement tout en le ménageant, les
biens nécessaires à la satisfaction de leurs besoins [...] La productivité est
accrue grâce à l’exploitation effective d’acquis scientifiques et technologiques à
faible coût respectueux de la santé et de l’environnement [...] Grâce à
l’information et à l’éducation, les campagnes de vaccination, massives et
systématiques, ont permis de sauver des centaines de milliers d’enfants [...] Les
infrastructures - routes, barrages, ponts, aéroports, bâtiments publics - sont bien
entretenus et réhabilités en raison de leur appropriation par les populations,
maintenant au fait de leur importance, de leur coût, de leur mode de
financement et des modalités de leur remboursement.
Les nations riches, le FMI, la Banque mondiale, et l’Organisation mondiale du
commerce [...] [l]eur pouvoir est d’autant plus limité que les citoyens et
citoyennes du Sud savent évaluer et éventuellement dénoncer leurs actions. Un
secteur privé national et régional émerge dans le cadre de l’Union africaine et
de programmes de développement largement concertés et réellement profitables
au plus grand nombre" -- Aminata Traoré, former Malian cabinet minister,
social justice advocate. ["Le viol de l’imaginaire", Fayard, 2002: 197-200]
Table of Contents
Canada in Mali: Aid, Gold, Cotton, Migration.........................................................................1
version 20090922..................................................................................................................1
Abstract— ................................................................................................................................1
5 of 165

Since 1990, Canada and Mali have persistently ranked among the top and bottom five
countries, respectively, on human development indicators. Two starkly oppositional
commentaries dominate their inter-relationship. That of the Government of Canada and
corporate stakeholders is aspirational and future-looking, typified by the phrase "win-win
outcomes". From long-time observers including Canadians Joan Baxter and Alain Deneault
and the Malian, Aminata Traoré, it is past- and present-looking, and scathing:
"dispossession", "pillage" and "plunder". This literature review and analysis of state,
corporate, civil society, academic sources builds some empirical structure on the largely
vacant intervening terrain, as the impetus for increased disclosure and transparency
strengthens. One billion dollars (US) has entered the Malian economy over the period 1996-
2007 - roughly 3% to 4% of GDP annually - directly from the Sadiola and Yatela gold mines,
which were discovered and are 38%-owned by the Canadian mid-sized mining company,
IAMGOLD Corporation. This represents half of Malian gold revenue over this period. Mali
has benefited from cancelation of most of its external debt, reducing repayments from 3.0%
of GDP in 1997 to 1.3% in 2006. Despite the UN predicting that its population growth rate is
peaking this decade at 2.4% per annum, the IMF estimates that Mali's real GDP per capita is
rising even faster, at 3.4% per annum. The Human Development Index for Mali has risen
2.2% annually from 2000-06, placing the country among the top five most rapid improvers.
Nevertheless, another US$1.5bn. in Malian gold revenue from Sadiola has exited the country,
mainly to South Africa's Anglogold Ashanti Limited, its South African partners and
European investors, but also to Canada, as IAMGOLD profits of US$260m. The Canada and
Quebec public pension plans invested a total of Cdn$69m. in Canadian mining firms active
in Mali during 2008. While these plans earned ca. $1m. in IAMGOLD dividends from 2006
to 2008, net earnings for all seven Canadian mining firms in Mali over this period amounted
to a net loss of ca. $3m. Over 1996-2007, Canada provided US$383m. in official
development aid to Mali, of which approximately US$110-150m. returned to Canada in the
form of tied procurements. Mali has lost between US$100-200m. in export revenue over the
last decade, as Canada progressively reduced its Malian imports from a peak of U$19m. in
1999 ($14m., cotton) to just U$0.4m in 2007 ($0, cotton). Mali's development progress has
been further hampered by Canada's restrictive immigration quotas: if Canada proportionally
mirrored France's intake of legally registered Malian immigrants - 0.07% of the French
population as opposed to Canada's current 0.003% - these workers' remittances to Mali
would likely amount to C$20m. per annum, or about one-third of current Canada-Mali
official aid levels. Reports of adverse health consequences experienced by Malian citizens
residing in communities adjacent to the part Canadian-owned mines, which first came to light
in 2003, remain both unresolved and unreported in the mainstream Canadian news media. A
2007 Pew Research Center opinion poll confirms the disparities: when citizens of 44 nations
were asked which steps on the "ladder of life" they occupied, just 13% of Malians considered
themselves to be "high" in relative standing, compared to 71% of Canadians. The review
ends with fifteen recommendations...........................................................................................1
1. OVERVIEW..........................................................................................................................9
1.1. ONE-QUARTER OF MALIAN ECONOMY: FOREIGN AID, GOLD & COTTON..9
1.2. CANADIAN CORPORATE INTERESTS ABROAD: PAX CANADENSIS?..........13
1.3. CANADA GAINS AS MUCH AS IT GIVES TO MALI. .........................................15
1.4. COTTON EXPORTS LOST, BUT $1 BILLION IN GOLD REVENUE FOR MALI.
..............................................................................................................................................15
1.5. LONG-TERM BENEFITS?..........................................................................................17
6 of 165

1.6. FAIRER IMMIGRATION QUOTAS FOR MALIANS WOULD INCREASE
MONETARY FLOWS BY 33% OVER CANADIAN AID. ............................................17
1.7. NON-MONETARY MEASURES. .............................................................................18
1.8. MALI A STRONG CANADIAN ALLY. ..................................................................18
1.9. MALI & NEWSWORTHINESS. ...............................................................................19
1.10. SLOWLY NARROWING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT GAPS BETWEEN MALI &
CANADA............................................................................................................................20
1.11. A CANADIAN'S LUCKY GOLD STRIKE at SADIOLA........................................21
1.12. SILENCING & EVADING........................................................................................22
2. MALI & "DEVELOPMENT".............................................................................................27
2.1. MALIANS & CANADIANS: THREE STARK COMPARISONS.............................27
2.2. MEASURES OF MALI'S HUMAN DEVELOPMENT..............................................32
2.3. CANADA'S DEVELOPMENT ENGAGEMENT WITH MALI................................47
2.4. ESTIMATES OF MALIAN-CANADIANS' HOME REMITTANCES: ca. C$0.7m.
PER YEAR..........................................................................................................................56
3. CANADA'S BUSINESSES IN MALI................................................................................58
3.1. SECOND-LARGEST INVESTOR IN AFRICAN MINING EXPLORATION .........58
3.2. GLOBAL MINING EXPLORATION LEADER........................................................59
3.3. MALIAN GOLD RUSH SUPPORTS 8% OF GDP ..................................................60
3.4. ONLY 0.4% OF MALIAN LABOUR FORCE IN MINING.......................................61
3.5. CANADIAN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN MALI ......................................................61
3.6. CANADIAN SUBSOIL EXTRACTIVE COMPANIES IN MALI.............................65
3.7. CANADIAN PUBLIC PENSION INVESTMENTS...................................................67
3.8. TWENTY-TWO PERCENT OF MALIAN GOLD PRODUCTION IS CANADIAN-
FUNDED.............................................................................................................................74
3.9. MALIAN OIL...............................................................................................................75
3.10. CANADA-MALI TRADE..........................................................................................75
3.11. FAIRNESS IN SHARING MALI'S GOLD REVENUES: IAMGOLD IN DETAIL81
4. IMPACTS OF INDUSTRIAL MINING IN MALI.............................................................97
4.1. SOCIO-ECONOMIC STUDIES..................................................................................97
4.2. HEALTH & ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS..........................................................111
5. ARTISANAL GOLD MINERS, "NO DIRTY GOLD", "FAIR TRADE GOLD" and
"FAIR TRADE COTTON"....................................................................................................121
5.1. ARTISANAL GOLD MINING. ................................................................................121
5.2. FAIR TRADE GOLD.................................................................................................126
5.3. CONFLICT METALS, "NO DIRTY GOLD", FAIR TRADE GOLD, RESPONSIBLE
JEWELLERY....................................................................................................................127
5.4. WORLD GOLD TRADE: INDIA #1 IMPORTER SINCE 2004.............................128
5.5. MALI, CANADA & COTTON TRADE....................................................................129
5.6. MALI FIRST IN FAIR-TRADE COTTON...............................................................130
6. CANADA'S INTERNATIONAL MINING REGULATORY POLICY...........................131
6.1. CANADIAN AND AFRICAN MINING REGULATORY POLICY........................134
6.2. MALI'S FOREIGN INVESTMENT POLICY: A WINNER'S CURSE....................139
6.3. ANGLO-SAXON COLONISED REGIONS: DEVELOPMENT GAPS WITH
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES.................................................................................................140
6.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: "BUILDING THE CANADIAN ADVANTAGE" &
BILL C-300........................................................................................................................143
7. CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................145
7 of 165

8. RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................................................153
9. How to Start a Day Care Center? http://amzn.to/1RtPc5n................................................163
10. India Travel http://amzn.to/1RwKd6c.............................................................................163
11. Law of attraction: (A Simple Guide to attract Wealth, Health,power,and Happiness)
http://amzn.to/1UmirNh.........................................................................................................163
12. Nursing Careers: Do You Have What It Takes http://amzn.to/1pDLChD......................163
13. Public Contract Law: The Law Student's Guide to Pursuing a Career in Public Contract
Law http://amzn.to/1So19Ms.................................................................................................163
14. Public Speaking: Secrets for Success http://amzn.to/1ZFuF3g.......................................163
15. The Quality of Life: health related quality of life questionnaire http://amzn.to/1MKj4IL
................................................................................................................................................163
16. relating to certain aspects of the laws on the use of languages in
Belgium http://amzn.to/25qIlTU............................................................................................163
17. Self Insight and Professional Growth http://amzn.to/1Pyee13........................................163
18. Sex Life after 60: ( Common Issues to Consider if you want to have a Great Sex Life
after 60 ) http://amzn.to/1RwLcTO.......................................................................................163
19. Swimming Pool Guide http://amzn.to/1UUA5GS...........................................................163
20. The Weight Loss Solution :: 53 Lessons for loss Your Weight Forever
http://amzn.to/1RmkIWt........................................................................................................163
21. WHAT DO YOU WANT? how to design a plan for your life: how to design a plan for
your life http://amzn.to/1ZFuG7i...........................................................................................163
22. Wood Working Guilds http://amzn.to/1UQoXMj...........................................................163
23. Yoga :: An Easy Yoga for Beginners Guide (Lose Weight, And Heal Your
Body) http://amzn.to/1pR1P3Q.............................................................................................163
24. Criminal Law: International Criminal Police Organization http://amzn.to/25qILcO......164
25. American Idol Contestants http://amzn.to/1So25jJ.........................................................164
26. Bitcoin : The Ultimate Guide for Beginners http://amzn.to/1pDMaUU.........................164
27. The Book on Beginners Guide to Flipping Houses: ABCs of Flipping Houses
http://amzn.to/1XW5h7G.......................................................................................................164
28. Building Self Esteem http://amzn.to/1SeuCFV...............................................................164
29. Catch A Cheating Lover http://amzn.to/1VOHNTI.........................................................164
30. Contracts http://amzn.to/1XW5urA.................................................................................164
31. Cosmetic Surgery: Signs You May Need a Cosmetic Surgery Facelift
http://amzn.to/1pDMovi.........................................................................................................164
32. Credit Card Debt: Everything You Need to Know to Avoid the Mistakes
http://amzn.to/25qJafs............................................................................................................164
33. Dog Training: : Complete Guide to Training Your Dog or Puppy http://amzn.to/1Rml9A2
................................................................................................................................................164
34. Dream Interpretation: This book explains in detail the interpretation of dreams
http://amzn.to/1RHyZPq........................................................................................................164
35. E-Bay http://amzn.to/21NdtIr..........................................................................................164
36. Eat Healthier: Tips for healthy eating http://amzn.to/1Tce5Y6.......................................164
37. Facebook Marketing http://amzn.to/1MKktit.................................................................164
38. Green Tea: Why You Must Drink It? http://amzn.to/1MtiioD........................................164
39. Hawaii Vacation: A Travel Guide http://amzn.to/1oetslD..............................................164
40. Christian Organizations http://amzn.to/1YhysTt.............................................................164
43. Anime and Sci-Fi Collecting http://amzn.to/1QWiNmv................................................165
44. Anger Management: A Grandiosity Mind Trapped in Anger..........................................165
8 of 165

45. http://amzn.to/1UMgOrK.................................................................................................165
46. Cat Behavior Training http://amzn.to/1XgS0sE..............................................................165
47. A Firefighters Character http://amzn.to/1ZwoWfm........................................................165
48. A Good Mailing List for a Bad One http://amzn.to/1SYpp9P.........................................165
49. Wellness And Fitness http://amzn.to/1XgRNWw...........................................................165
50. A Look at the Steps of Making Wine http://www.amazon.com/dp/1533165661............165
51. Haytham Al Fiqi Books: http://amzn.to/27nSCB9..........................................................165
52. Haytham Al Fiqi blog : http://bit.ly/1MeeZBG...............................................................165
1. OVERVIEW
Mali is a country about the size of the Canadian province of Ontario, with a
population one-third that of Canada's, but predicted by the United Nations to
reach two-thirds of Canada's population by mid-century. Having provided
about Cdn. $1bn. to Mali in development aid over the last 35 years, Canada has
recently become the third-largest aid donor to Mali, and probably the largest
investor in Mali's mining potential after South Africa. According to the UN
measures of human well-being, Canada and Mali have persistently occupied
extreme opposite ends on a 180-nation spectrum, ranked among the top five and
bottom five respectively. So it is worth investigating the recent dynamics
between these two nations.
1.1. ONE-QUARTER OF MALIAN ECONOMY: FOREIGN AID, GOLD &
COTTON
According to rules set by the richest nations, Mali's potential for economic and
social development rests on three factors:
(1) AID. Official development assistance (ODA) from the world's highest-
income nations amounted to 14.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in
2007 (World Bank, "The Little Data Book on Africa", 2008:63). In 1990, the
ODA/GDP ratio was 19.9%, and in 2000, 14.9% (World Bank, "Country
Assistance Strategy for the Republic of Mali for the Period FY08-FY11",
Report No. 41746 - ML, 2007: 74).
9 of 165

(2) GOLD. Mali's export revenue from gold was estimated at 8% of GDP in
2007 (International Monetary Fund, "Mali: Selected Issues", Country Report
No. 08/286, 2008: 11). A slightly earlier estimate was 12% of GDP (World
Bank, "Country Assistance Strategy for the Republic of Mali for the Period
FY08-FY11", Report No. 41746 - ML, 2007: 2, n.2). In 2009, the Government
of Mali is forecast to refund the value-added tax (VAT) and import duty due on
2006-07 gold operations to mining companies, a sum amounting to US$122m,
or 1.5% of GDP; this was "agreed in order to maintain foreign investor
confidence and thus underpin prospects for future development and production
in the sector" (Economist Intelligence Unit, "Country Report Mali", February
2009: 13). According to the Canadian company IAMGOLD, the Government
of Mali (GoM) owes it $13.1m in 2008 ($19.9m in 2007) in "fuel tax, value
added tax ("VAT"), and stamp duties receivable which are not expected to be
repaid within one year". In 2008, the GoM paid IAMGOLD $5.44m. against
long-term VAT receivables (IAMGOLD, "Annual Report", 2008: 117). Mali's
global share of gold exports has been relatively constant since 2003, between
1.2% in 2005 ($505m. out of $41.6bn) and 1.8% in 2006 ($1.1bn. out of
$64.7bn) (UN, "International Trade Statistics Yearbook", Commodity Pages:
971 Gold, non-monetary, comtrade.un.org).
(3) COTTON. Mali's 109,000 tonnes of cotton exported in 2007/2008 (240m.
pounds), at about $0.70 per pound, were worth approximately $168m. (USDA,
"Cotton World Markets and Trade", April 2009: Tables 06, 07); this represents
approximately 2.8% of Mali's $6.1bn GDP in 2007 (World Bank, "Mali at a
glance", 9/24/08). By another account, export revenue from cotton, in 2007,
valued at $224.5m, represented 3.3% of the $6.8bn. GDP (Economist
Intelligence Unit, "Country Report. Mali", February 2009: 4). The proportion
has fallen from 6.7% in 2002 (Dorothée Boccanfuso and Luc Savard, "Poverty
and Inequality Impact Analysis Regarding Cotton Subsidies: A Mali-based
CGE Micro-accounting Approach", Journal of African Economies 2007
16(4):629-659). Data collected by the United Nations Statistics Division show
that Mali's shares of the total value of world cotton exports fell from 3.5% in
2003 ($350m. out of $10.0bn) to 1.7% in 2007 ($199m. out of $12.0bn); Mali
went from the seventh-largest cotton exporter in 2003 and 2004 to tenth-largest
in 2007, while neighbouring Burkina Faso advanced from eighth in 2003 to
fifth in 2007, Egypt fell from sixth to thirteenth, and Benin rose from thirteenth
to seventh. Canada's imports of raw cotton have declined dramatically this
decade, from 2003's $113m. (1.3% of global imports) to $36m. in 2007 (0.3%
of global), its rank dropping from 17th to 25th (UN, "International Trade
Statistics Yearbook", Commodity Pages: 263 Cotton, comtrade.un.org).
10 of 165

Canadian domestic and foreign policies have directly impacted on all three
factors. In strictly dollar terms, Canada's total development aid disbursements
(bilateral and multilateral) to Mali over the last decade have exceeded the
repatriated profits from Mali's largest gold mines, SEMOS (for which
IAMGOLD holds 38% and 40% shares) by a ratio of U$383m. to U$267m., or
about 1.4 to 1 (1996-2007). If Canada's tied aid requirements are accounted for,
Canada's economic advantage is further improved, since between 75% and 25%
of our bilateral aid has had to be spent on Canadian goods and services. In
addition to roughly C$716m. in bilateral (country-to-country) aid between 1972
and 2007 (uncorrected for inflation), Canada has also disbursed ca. C$269m. to
Mali through multilateral channels such as the United Nations and the World
Bank (CIDA Annual Reports/Reviews, 1974-75 to 1993-94; CIDA Statistical
Reports on ODA, 1994-95 to 2006-07). Further, Canada has effectively
deprived Mali of $28m. in cotton export revenue annually since the mid-2000s,
as the US went from furnishing 90% of our cotton needs to 99%. These
transactions, it could be argued, have been offset by a gold discovery made in
1988 attributed Canadian Mark Nathanson in western Mali, which has resulted
in an additional $1bn. in revenue to Mali over the last decade.
Malian migrant workers' remittances, U$192m. in 2007, were estimated to
account for 3.3% of the Malian GDP (World Bank, "Worker's remittances as a
share of GDP, 2007", http://econ.worldbank.org). In 2005, the G8 nations
(including Canada) cancelled $2 billion of Mali's foreign debt, reducing it from
49% of the Malian GDP in 2005 to 20% in 2006 (OECD, "African Economic
Outlook", 2007/2008: 424-5). Annual external debt service payments fell from
3.1% of GDP in 1987 and 3.0% in 1997 to 1.3% in 2006 (calculated from:
World Bank, Mali, Data & Statistics, "Mali at a glance", 9/24/08,
devdata.worldbank.org/AAG/mli_aag.pdf ). However, Malians are severely
under-represented among Canada's immigrant population when compared to
France, and this deprives the Malian economy of some U$19m. (ca. 0.3% of
GDP) annually in remittance receipts (see Section 2.5).
This decade has seen a sharp rise and sudden decline in 2008 in the value of
many commodities, from copper to oil, but not for cotton. The IMF
Commodity Metals Price Index, an aggregate of copper, aluminum, iron ore,
tin, nickel, zinc, lead, and uranium prices, with the 2005 price set at 100, went
from 63 in the 1980s and 1990s (37% below the 2005 price), to a peak of 183 in
2007, before declining to 169 in 2008 and 103 for the first quarter of 2009.
Nominal prices for raw cotton, on the other hand, averaged U$0.73 per pound
in both the 1980s and 1990s, but fell to an average of US$0.58 per pound from
2000-2009Q1, with prices this decade fluctuating between $0.46/lb. (2002) and
11 of 165

$0.71/lb. (2008) (IMF, "Indices of Primary Commodity Prices", monthly data
CSV file 1980-current, http://www.imf.org/external/np/res/commod/index.asp).
Mali has been somewhat fortunate to have gold as a primary export. Unlike
base metals, which since mid-2008 have fallen dramatically in price, gold prices
have been resilient to the present global economic recession. According to one
analysis, when corrected for inflation, in constant 2009 dollars, gold's price has
risen above US$1,000, only twice since the mid-eighteenth century, in 1980 and
in 2008 (Nick Laird, "300 Years of Gold - CPI Adjusted",
http://www.sharelynx.com/gold/GoldSilverCPI5.php; Brook Larmer, "L'or au
prix fort", National Geographic France, mars 2009: 50). At constant 2008
prices, gold was at $2,000 an ounce during the fifteenth century, gradually
falling to around $500 for most of the twentieth century. It has fluctuated
dramatically in the second half of the twentieth century, between $200 and $600
(Nick Laird, "The real price of gold, 1344-1999",
http://www.sharelynx.com/chartsfixed/600yeargoldprice.gif). Since a low of
$255 in 1999, it has resurged to over $1,000 in 2008, and remained above $800
in early 2009 (Daily gold price in a range of currencies since January 2000
http://www.gold.org/deliver.php?file=/value/stats/statistics/xls/web_daily.xls).
In April 2009, gold was still around $900 per ounce, just ten percent below its
March 2008 peak of $1,011 (World Gold Council, "Daily gold price in a range
of currencies since January 2000", www.gold.org). The nominal price of gold
rose 3.3-fold from U$279/oz. in 2000 to U$906/oz. in the first quarter of 2009,
while the nominal price of raw cotton fell by 20% from U$0.72/lb. during 1981-
90 to U$0.58/lb. during 2001-2009Q1 (gold.org; cotlook.com).
Along with other Sahelian nations on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert,
Mali's Human Development Index (HDI, the United Nations' aggregate measure
of national school enrolment, life expectancy and income) has increased this
decade more rapidly than for any other world region. Rather surprisingly,
Mali's Sahelian neighbour, Burkina Faso, has experienced the same rapid
improvement in its Human Development Index during this decade, despite
having had no significant industrial mining production over the last decade as in
Mali; however, Canadian junior mining exploration companies including
Orezone and High River are active there, and Orezone's major Burkina
property, Essakane, was recently acquired by IAMGOLD. Burkina Faso's HDI
rose from 0.317 (2000) to 0.372 (2006), an average annual improvement of
2.7%, compared to 2.2% for Mali (0.343 to 0.391), 4.0% for Niger (0.293 to
0.370) and 3.1% for Ethiopia (0.323 to 0.389) (UNDP, "Human Development
Report" 2007/2008, Table 1). If this linear rate of HDI improvement proves to
be sustainable over the coming decades, these poorest-of-the-poor nations could
12 of 165

conceivably achieve parity with the highest human development nations by
2050. But such optimism may well be unwarranted: in 2005, Gordon Brown,
then the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, predicted that at current
trajectories, sub-Saharan Africa would not achieve the UN Millennium
Development Goal 2015 targets for poverty reduction, education and child
mortality until the middle of the next century, i.e. around 2150 ("The challenges
of 2005," New Economy, September 2004, 11(3):127-131).
1.2. CANADIAN CORPORATE INTERESTS ABROAD: PAX
CANADENSIS?
The China-ward shift in global industrial capacity over the past two decades
has, for Canada, "return[ed it] to a dependence on raw materials [a]nd these are
increasingly exported unrefined" (John Ralston Saul, "A Fair Country: Telling
Truths About Canada", Viking 2008: 266). As domestic resources become
depleted, the Canadian mining industry has been leveraging its constellation of
expertise - in exploration, geomatics, financing, regulatory and legal support -
on other continents, and especially Latin America and Africa. Just as Canada
represented a privileged zone of resource extraction for European powers three
to four centuries ago. As Northrup Frye put it, "[t]he sense of probing into the
distance, of fixing the eyes on the skyline, is something that Canadian
sensibility has inherited from the voyageurs" ("The Bush Garden: Essays on the
Canadian Imagination", Anansi, (1971) 1995: 224).
In January 2009, in the first month of her appointment, Canada's Ambassador to
Mali, Ms. Virginie Saint-Louis boarded a small plane in Bamako to travel to a
gold mine in western Mali to speak at the annual three-day stakeholders'
workshop sponsored by the SEMOS mine consortium, Société d'Exploitation
des Mines d'Or de Sadiola. Since the early 1990s, a Canadian company,
IAMGOLD, has held a 38% stake in this mine's operations and its gold
production has contributed about US$1bn. in revenue to Mali's government,
workers, and businesses. Another $250m. in profits from the mine have
returned to Canada, roughly equivalent to the figure the Canadian government
has provided to Mali in development assistance over the same ten-year period.
Based on IAMGOLD and AngloGold Ashanti's published production figures,
and total Malian gold production data from the Banque de France, the SEMOS
mine was responsible for 48.2% of Mali's total gold production between 1997-
13 of 165

2007, 226 tonnes out of 469 tonnes (IAMGOLD Ann.Rep. 1997: 26 of 103;
AngloGold AR98: 9; AngloGold AR98: 9; AG AR99: 12, AG AR00: 14; AG
AR01:24; AngloGold Ashanti AR04:41-42; AGA AR06:74-76; AGA
AR06:74-76; AGA AR08:33,35; Banque de France, Rapport Zone Franc,
2007:177, 2004:161, 2001:149, 1999:275).
Gold production, thousands of kilogram
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
SEMOS
total (1)
0.015 11.8 16.3 17.4 19.6 21.7 24.1 21.5 22.5
Sadiola 0.015 11.8 16.3 17.4 19.6 17.3 15.4 14.5 14.8
Yatela 4.4 8.6 7.0 7.8
Total Mali
production
(2)
6.6 18.5 21.2 25.3 28.3 53.7 66.1 54.0 41.6
SEMOS %
of Malian
gold
production
0.2%
63.9
%
76.8
%
68.9
%
69.4
%
40.4
%
36.4
%
39.9
%
54.2
%
Sources
(1) 100% of the mine production, converted from the 38% and 40% "attributed" produ
of IAMGOLD and AngloGold Ashanti. 1996-1999 figures from IAMGOLD Annual Re
1998: 8; 1999:2,13 of 91. 2000-2003 figures from: AngloGold Annual Reports 2000:
2003:25. 2004-2007 figures from AngloGold Ashanti Annual Reports 2006:74-76; 20
ounce figures reported in annual reports converted at Wikipedia, "Troy weight". 1 troy
gm
(2) Banque de France, Rapport annuel de la Zone franc, 2007:177, 2004:161, 2001:
of the figures differ slightly within these, so most recent entered here.
14 of 165

Yet, the only article to have been published in mainstream English and French
news sources in Canada referring to community-reported adverse human health
and environmental consequences from Sadiola and its sister mine 30 km away,
Yatela, appeared in "The Province" (Vancouver) with absolutely no mention of
part-Canadian ownership ("Mines create ecological time-bomb; Mali, Africa's
third-largest gold producer, 'harvests only dust'", The Province. Vancouver,
B.C.: Oct 10, 2007. pg. A.33).
1.3. CANADA GAINS AS MUCH AS IT GIVES TO MALI.
From 1996-2007, the Canadian government has provided some US$383m. in
development aid directly to the Malian government and NGOs working there,
while Canadian mining company IAMGOLD has earned US$267m. in profits
from shares in the gold mine it helped establish. Factoring in tied aid
requirements, 54% of Canada's bilateral assistance has returned to Canada as
procurement of Canadian goods and services, about US$150m.; these services
have included long-term consultancy contracts with CRC SOGEMA in public
management, and Canac Canarail in railway infrastructure (Section 3.5). Thus,
true Canadian disbursements to Mali exclusive of tied aid amount to U$233m.,
one-tenth less than the U$267m. in repatriated profits from our mining
operations there.
1.4. COTTON EXPORTS LOST, BUT $1 BILLION IN GOLD REVENUE
FOR MALI.
In the 1990s, Canadian imports from Mali averaged US$7.8m. a year, but have
since dropped to just US$0.4m. a year during 2003-2008. In the 1990s, 86% of
Canada's imports from Mali were cotton, while from 2000-2008, they
represented 77% (Industry Canada, Trade Data Online, Products, HS 5201,
Cotton - not carded or combed). In 1999, Canada imports from Mali peaked at
U$19m., $14m. of which was raw cotton grown and hand-picked by one-third
of Mali's 12 million citizens. This decade, Canadian importers' business
decisions, likely predicated on US cotton protectionist legislation, effectively
deprived Mali and its people of $80m. in cotton export revenue: our Malian
cotton imports have totally disappeared and we have come to rely almost
entirely on American-grown cotton. Our peak Malian cotton imports in 1999
represented about 6.7% of Mali's total of $210.1m. in cotton exports for that
year (UN Comtrade database, HS5201). Over the 1990s, Canada imported
$105m. worth of goods from Mali, $89m. of which was raw cotton; during
2000-2007, our Malian imports declined to just $19m., of which only $13m.
15 of 165

was cotton (Industry Canada, Trade Data Online, Products, HS Code 5201). On
the other hand, a mining discovery at Sadiola in western Mali in 1988,
attributed to a Canadian, Mark Nathanson, then a marketer of government
intelligence equipment, has eventually led to a total of U$940m. in revenue to
the Malian government, Malian businesses, workers and communities during
1996-2006; the sum will exceed $1bn. by 2008 with potentially another three or
four years before mine closure, according to the mine's manager, AngloGold
Ashanti. Nathanson's company, IAMGOLD Corporation, with the
collaboration of the World Bank and South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti,
provided the government and its people with US$1bn. via revenue from
industrial gold mining investment. Canada's repatriated profits have been
US$215m. over 1996-2006, including dividends for all Canadians via our
national and Quebec public pension plans. These mines are not scheduled for
closure until 2010-2013 (AngloGold Ashanti, Report to Society 2008: 143).
Ongoing exploration efforts in Mali by a half-dozen Canadian junior mining
companies, while not having identified any new finds as lucrative as Sadiola
and Yatela, will probably ensure future gold revenue for Mali and Canada.
Canada has contributed US$263m. in net bilateral official development aid,
other financial flows and private investment to Mali over the period 1998-2007
(U$230m. from 1996-2006, with an additional ca. $80m. provided via Canada's
contributions to multilateral institutions, based on the CIDA Statistical Reports
which show C$220m. and C$69m. in bilateral and multilateral aid to Mali
between 1999 and 2005), although on average about 40% of that amount had to
be spent on Canadian goods and services (OECD. "Geographical Distribution
of Financial Flows to Developing Countries: Disbursements, Commitments,
Country Indicators," Paris, various years). After falling from 75% tied aid in
2000 to 25% in 2007 (OECD Journal on Development, Report, 2001, 2007),
Canada's Minister of International Cooperation announced in 2008 that by
2012-13, the Government of Canada will untie all its aid entirely (CIDA
website, "Speaking Notes by the Honourable Beverley J. Oda on International
Cooperation Days", 2008-11-17). Although tying status data do not appear to
be publicly available at the recipient country level, a CIDA internal analysis of
untied aid ratios in 1991/92 and 1992/93 showed them to be 30% and 31% of
bilateral disbursements - well below the allowable ceiling of 50% for sub-
Saharan Africa (Morrison, David R. "Aid and Ebb Tide: A History of Canadian
Development Assistance", Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1998: 352, 295).
According to OECD data, global Canadian bilateral untied aid ratios in those
years were 43% and 42%, respectively (OECD.Stat, DAC7b Tying Status of
Bilateral ODA, 510: 4.a) Bil. Commit. - Untied, 500: 4. Total Bilateral
Commitments, http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLE7B).
Thus, it is possible that untied aid to Mali was closer to about 61% for the 1996-
16 of 165

2007 period, in which case only $108m. of our bilateral aid was spent in
Canada. Averaged over each decade, OECD.Stat reports that Canada's overall
bilateral untied aid share has gone from 30.8% (1979-1989) to 43.1% (1990-
1999) and 58.0% (2000-2007).
1.5. LONG-TERM BENEFITS?
Oxfam America, in its 2006 assessment of the Sadiola mine's impact on Mali's
economy, concluded after interviews with 47 government, mining company and
civil society stakeholders that there was a "very substantial gap in capacity as to
how best to manage resources in the long term. We did not see a deep
understanding of the implications in the long term (particularly at mine closure)
about the environmental or social impact. For the most part, we heard no
concern about their lack of information about amounts paid to the governments
and amounts they are due" (Oxfam America, "Hidden treasure? In search of
Mali's gold-mining revenues", 2006: 59).
Using World Bank data, the International Labour Organization predicts that the
proportion of sub-Saharan Africans living on under $1 per day will not diminish
in the next decade: in 1980 it was 42.6%, in 2003: 45.7%, and in 2015 it is
projected to be 44.6%; similarly for those living below $2 per day will go from
76.4% in 2003 to 75.5% in 2015. No other region of the world is predicted to
maintain its current $1- and $2-poverty levels by 2015; South Asia in particular
is expected to halve its $1/day levels from 28.4% in 2003 to 14.4% in 2015, and
the world aggregate will fall from 19.5% to 13.2% (ILO, "World Employment
Report" 2004-05: 23). The rising India middle class, indeed, has become the
world's largest importer of gold during this decade, surpassing the UK in 2004;
this is a key reason for gold commodity prices having tripled since 2000, and
perhaps explains its resilience in spite of 2008's base metals price slump
(United Nations, "International Trade Statistics Yearbook", 2007, 971 Gold,
non-monetary).
1.6. FAIRER IMMIGRATION QUOTAS FOR MALIANS WOULD
INCREASE MONETARY FLOWS BY 33% OVER CANADIAN AID.
If Canada mirrored France's ratio of 190 Malian immigrants per 100,000
population, we would have 59,000 Malians in our midst, or about 70 times
more than we currently do. Even if Canada only proportionally matched in
immigrant population France's 45,500 Malians with residence permits, we
would have 22,800 Malian-Canadians. Assuming they made worker
17 of 165

remittances similar to those in Statistics Canada's 2008 preliminary survey of
recent immigrants, with a 36% contribution rate of $2,300 per year, total home
remittances from Canada to Mali would be around $19m. per annum; that is
33% of what CIDA provided in official bilateral aid to the country in
2006/2007, and it is 0% "tied" to Canadian purchases. These remittances would
reliably boost Mali's economy by about 0.3% of GDP (see Section 2.4).
1.7. NON-MONETARY MEASURES.
Obviously fiscal balance sheets fail to capture wholly the relationship between
two countries, one highly "advanced" by Western definitions of human
development, the other struggling to emerge from a base of subsistence
agriculture. The SEMOS gold mine has reportedly caused adverse health
effects to the local population and to wildlife; the post-production reclamation
phase of the mines remains for future assessment. There are many less tangible
and unquantifiable benefits and impacts, such as Canada's many non-profit
organisations' long-term development collaborations with Mali's people, from
SUCO's forty years of community engagement to Farm Radio's outreach to
farmers via Malian journalists, Canarail and Canac's privatisation contracts with
the Malian railway system, CPCS Transcom's privatisation consulting with
Mali's river transport company, and the rest of our $18m. in total direct Malian
investment in 2007 (US $16.8m.) (Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Canada, "Fact Sheet - Mali", PDF, February 2009,
http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/mali/bilateral_relations_bilaterales/fs-
mali-fd.aspx?lang=eng). Canada counted 855 Malian immigrants amongst our
population in 2006, compared to 120,000 in France (Section 2.5).
1.8. MALI A STRONG CANADIAN ALLY.
Commenting on the disappearance in mid-December, 2008, of two Canadians at
the Niger-Mali border - UN Special Envoy for Niger, Robert Fowler, and his
aide, Louis Guay - Malian president Amadou Toumani Toure told CBC News
that it was "unacceptable that their freedom is taken away" and that Mali and
Canada have become closer because of the hostage situation and are working
together diplomatically to find the best solution ("Mali's president says
abduction of two Cdn diplomats in Niger 'unacceptable'", Canadian Press,
04/03/2009). During Quebec's ice storm of 1998, villagers in Sanankoroba,
Mali, sympathetically collected a hundred dollars to help the affected
townspeople in Sainte-Élisabeth; this gesture arose from "Des mains pour
demain"/Benkadi, a community twinning project established through the
18 of 165

Canadian development group SUCO (CIDA, Media Room - Canadians Making
a Difference in the World - "Claude Giles helps farmers in Mali", Last Updated:
2008-04-14). In 2003, Mabo Touré, the daughter of Mali's president, Amadou
Toumani Touré, graduated from the University of Moncton, and in 2005, 35
Malian students were studying at this bilingual university in New Brunswick
(Ambassade du Mali au Canada, "Canada-Mali, Le President Amadou Toumani
Touré au Canada: Récits, Témoignages et opinions", Ottawa, 2005: 4,7)
1.9. MALI & NEWSWORTHINESS.
How does the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation decide what is "newsworthy"
or "documentary-worthy" when so very little in the way of disease epidemics,
famine, natural disasters, civil war or foreign hostage-taking incidents has come
out of West Africa in recent years to provoke crisis-driven journalism? Was the
decision to devote three of four special assignments of Montreal-based CBC
producer David Gutnick to practices of "slavery" and bonded labour, and the
fourth on female excision (with a follow-up interview by Sunday Edition
producer Karen Wells 15 February 2009 with Claudia Antony, on violent
retaliations against Sierra Leonean anti-excision campaigners) simply
predicated on prevailing stereotypes of African "backwardness"? Is the absence
of reporting on Canadian business involvement in Africa symptomatic of its
general silencing in the mainstream media, or should it be considered benign or
budget-driven?
Would it not make more sense for CBC to ask "what might be the legacy of our
mining exploration activity in Africa", both for its people and to its ecosystems?
Would looking at the benefits and impacts on our mines on First Nations lands
in Canada's north and in Latin America provide some hints?
In 2000, in the only in-depth examination to date of foreign-funded mining's
impact in Mali by Canadian researchers, the North/South Institute made several
recommendations following a site visit to the part-Canadian-owned SEMOS
mine in Mali, including that: "the practices of Canadian companies operating in
Mali be regulated to ensure they conform to Canadian ethical and
environmental standards", that "CIDA Inc and the Export Development
Corporation (EDC) make public the details of the projects and companies that
they are supporting in Mali", and that the "Canadian aid program consider ways
of getting involved in the region affected by the Sadiola gold mine, perhaps
through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives" (2000: xviii). As of early 2009,
only one of these recommendations has been implemented, partially, with
19 of 165

CIDA focussing health and educational programming in the Kayes region,
where Canadian business activities are concentrated. However, no Canadian
NGO has become directly involved with the communities living around these
mines. Subsequent studies have come from Norway's Chr. Michelsen Institute,
Oxfam America, France's FIDH, the UN Global Compact; a UK aid-funded
team of Malian academic social scientists, GERSDA, has become involved with
enhancing the legal skills of other Malian mining communities, but not in
Sadiola. It would appear to be only the collective efforts of Malian expatriates
in Paris who first brought their compatriots' health-related problems - high
miscarriage rates and respiratory ailments - to light in 2004 with the production
of the documentary film "Le prix de l'or" by Camille de Vitry
(leprixdelor.com). All this remains largely under the radar in Canada, save for
the publication in 2008 of Alain Deneault's book "Noir Canada: Pillage,
corruption et criminalité en Afrique", which has brought court action to the
publishers from Canadian companies Banro and Barrick Gold. If the CBC
cannot bring this matter to the wider public eye, there is little hope of any of
mainstream corporate media doing so.
1.10.SLOWLY NARROWING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT GAPS
BETWEEN MALI & CANADA.
Canada and Mali occupy opposite and extreme ends of the human wellbeing -
life expectancy, income, education - spectrum. Section 2 of this report shows
that when Canadians and Malians are compared historically according to their
development paths, Malians today have the same income as Canadians did 170
years ago ($1,103 in 1990 dollars), their life expectancy at birth, 48 years, is
what Canadians experienced a century ago, and Mali's present infant mortality
rate, 120 per 1,000 live births in 2005, exceeds Canada's overall rate in the late
1920s, but is close to the province of Quebec's rate at that time, 127, placing
Malians more than 75 years behind us. Still, some of the gaps between Canada
and Mali have narrowed over the last sixty years - in 1950, Malian incomes
were what Canadians earned 250 years ago, life expectancy was 150 years
behind, and infant mortality rates were probably 200 years behind Canada.
Even in the last decade - the time during which Mali's largest industrial gold
mine, a Canadian-South African venture, has been in operation - Malian
incomes have narrowed with Canada; in the mid-1990s, Malian incomes were
200 years behind those of Canadians. Whether these gaps will continue to close
depends a great deal on how the government of Mali allocates its natural
resource revenues, but also on foreign investors' behaviour and donors' and
lenders' policies.
20 of 165

1.11.A CANADIAN'S LUCKY GOLD STRIKE at SADIOLA
$1 billion for Mali, $200m. for Canada, $1.5bn. for South Africa, World Bank
and European lenders
How do we quantify what is "plundering" and "stealing", as alleged by critics of
Canadian mining activities in Africa such as Gerald Caplan and Alain
Deneault? First, we require complete, accurate, and transparent reporting by
host and foreign governments and companies. AngloGold Ashanti, the South
African co-partner, along with Canada's IAMGOLD in Mali's most lucrative
large-scale gold mine to date, Sadiola, claims that only 13% of total gold
revenues went as profits to these companies and the World Bank's International
Finance Corporation, 36% went to the Malian government and its people, while
the remaining 51% went to capital repayment and non-Malian goods and
services; for the smaller Yatela mine, the corresponding ratios were 16%
shareholder profits, 49% to Mali, and 35% to non-Malian entities (AngloGold
Ashanti, "Country Report. Mali Sadiola Yatela", 2007: 1).
Based on AngloGold's published figures of $939m. in SEMOS revenue having
gone up to 2006 to Mali's government, workers, businesses and communities,
we can calculate that IAMGOLD would have received a total of $156m. in
revenue from its shares in the SEMOS consortium from the time of its inception
up until 2006 (AngloGold Ashanti, "Country Report. Mali Sadiola Yatela",
2006: 3). However, this sum is 25% lower than the U$208m. in net earnings
reported in IAMGOLD's annual reports during 1996-2006 for its Malian
properties (IAMGOLD, Annual Reports, 1997:27, 1998:57, 2000:12,13,
2002:66, 2004:55, 2005:55, 2007:116,117; see Section 3.11). Co-founders
Mark I. Nathanson and William Pugliese were reported to own 26% of
IAMGOLD's stock in 2002 (Whyte, James. "Iamgold, Repadre agree to
combine", The Northern Miner, 88(37), Nov 4/10, 2002), down from a 62%
share in 1996 (Kennedy, Peter. "IAMGold to raise $60M in share offering",
Financial Post, Mar 06, 1996, pg. 3). The IAMGOLD annual reports for 1996-
2002 show cumulative profits from their shares in Mali's SEMOS mines at
$95m. (1997:27, 1998:57, 2000:12,13, 2002:66, 2004:55); assuming just an
average combined share of 26% over this period, these two individuals'
personal profit amounted to $25m. IAMGOLD has entirely delegated its
corporate social responsibility activity in Mali to its South African co-partner,
AngloGold Ashanti.
21 of 165

1.12.SILENCING & EVADING
Canada's de facto neo-imperialist license appears honourable enough, sharing
our accumulated capital (financial and technical) in harnessing raw subsoil
resources (locating them and extracting them), for the benefit of whoever can
afford them. Our government offers generous tax exemptions, and we have a
robust GIS (geographical information systems) resource sector, and a leniently-
regulated Toronto Stock Exchange, all attracting investment capital. If the
emerging South Asian middle class desires gold jewelry on auspicious religious
holidays, Canadian explorers are well-adapted to finding the raw material in
remote regions of Africa like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal. Assuming the
terms of investment are fair, can we reasonably expect long-term benefits for
the people of Mali? With perhaps one in four Malians migrating to find work,
half the population under age 16, and World Bank predictions that dollar-a-day
poverty will remain around 45% of the population into 2015, it is clear Malians
are looking for more promising livelihoods.
According to the British historian Eric Hobsbawm, capitalism's "natural
frontiers" lie "at the end of the universe, or rather at the limits of their capacity
to expand" ("Age of Extremes", Vintage, 2001: 30)
According to economists such as Branko Milanovic and Xavier Sala-i-Martin,
the overall income inequality between the world's peoples, taking into account
both disparities within countries and between countries, grew steadily over the
last two centuries, but has not changed significantly since 1950 (Milanovic,
Branko (2005), "Worlds Apart: Measuring International and Global Inequality",
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press; Sala-i-Martin, Xavier (2006). "The
World Distribution of Income: Falling Poverty and … Convergence, Period",
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121(2): 351-397). However, aggregate
measures can mask continuing changes at the extreme ends of the income
distribution, where disparity continues to increase (Sutcliffe, Bob. "A
converging or diverging world?", UN Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, DESA Working Paper No. 2, October 2005: 12; Edward, Peter (2006).
"Examining Inequality: Who Really Benefits from Global Growth?", World
Development, 34(10): 1667-1695). When global per capita income and life
expectancy inequality are considered in tandem across the last two centuries,
life expectancy inequality peaked around 1930 while income inequality
continued to rise at a decelerated pace, so that "lifetime income" inequality has
effectivley plateaued at a maximum from 1960 to at least 1992 (Bourguignon,
22 of 165

François; Christian Morrisson (2002). "Inequality among World Citizens: 1820-
1992", Amer.Econ. Rev. 92(4):727-744). Nevertheless, the world's richest one
percent are steadily gaining on the poorest one percent, and this analysis of
Canadian-Malian mining investment will illustrate that.
. CBC Radio One producer David Gutnick's two recent documentaries from
Mali for (female genital mutilation among the Dogon broadcast on 30 January
2009, Canada's Farm Radio workshops broadcast 18 December, 2008), together
with at least three others from West Africa over the past year, on human slavery
and bonded labour still being practised in parts of Ghana, Togo and Mauritania,
have prompted me to learn more. Given the rarity with which the CBC sends
its Canada-based reporters on assignment into West Africa, I listened with great
interest. Certainly, these reports have taken us beyond the standard "disaster
journalism" narratives of African famine, pandemics, kleptocracy and bloody
ethnic conflict. However, the recurrent message of these pieces, for someone
who lacked previous knowledge of the continent, seems to have been: "Africa is
broken, or at least has very different cultural practices from the industrialized
world. But Africa can be fixed, its behaviour made to conform with ours". I
could find no comprehensive survey of Canada's involvement on that continent,
so this posting summarizes my findings for Mali. I share it not only for
listeners and readers, but also in the hope that the CBC will bring us
information with greater frequency, scope, and objectivity from the continent of
Africa.
The thoughts of several Canadians with longtime ties to Africa guided my
inquiry. First, the University of Alberta political scientist, Malinda S. Smith,
who has considered the ways in which the non-African media frequently couple
the word "Africa" with "tragedy" ("Beyond the African Tragedy: Discourses on
Development and the Global Economy", Ashgate, 2006):
"Rita Abrahamsen argues that instead of focusing on any notion of a correct or
incorrect theory of development or getting waylaid by notions of the right or
wrong development strategy, we should, instead, focus our attention 'on the
discourse itself', in order to expose what it 'silences and evades', and how it
legitimises certain options and excludes alternative futures" (p. 1-2). "Tragedy
has become a short-hand for humanitarian, economic and political crises in
Africa and, particularly, with a stereotypical view of the systemic violence and
apparently irrational or 'inexplicably' bad things Africans do to themselves.
Increasingly the evocation of tragedy is marked by an element of fatalism -
that's the way things are in Africa" (p. 5-6).
23 of 165

Smith is referring to misrepresentation via deflection of the gaze. What, if
anything, do Mr. Gutnick's portrayals of Africa silence and evade? Or, as Rita
Abrahamsen also asks, are there "ways in which its seductive power is used to
deceive"? ("Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and Good
Governance in Africa", Zed, 2000:47). The same questions could be put to the
Globe & Mail's Stephanie Nolen's articles about Mali published one year ago
("A seemingly stable nation falling apart at the seams", "U.S. cotton subsidies
rip apart fabric of Malian life", February 13, 14, 2008).
My second point of reference is Joan Baxter, a Canadian who has spent a
quarter-century in six west and east African countries, including seven years in
Mali, where she worked as a journalist for the BBC, CBC and Associated Press,
and raising a family: "[m]any citizens in Western countries think their
development aid is charity and believe that the rich north is 'helping' the poor
south. It's not their fault. This is a convenient myth created by Western
govenments and lending agencies to make their kind and good citizens happy,
even if it's not really true" (p. 14). "Mali's former Minister of Culture,
sociologist Aminata Dramane Traoré, and many African intellectuals and
activists insist these [industrialized countries and their institutions] are not
donors so much as they are creditors, maintaining that they take more out of
Africa in debt servicing, contract spin-offs, overheads for their own
administration of development programs and consultants' fees, and profits from
natural resource exploitation, than they actually put in through donations"
(Baxter, Joan. "Dust from our Eyes. An unblinkered look at Africa", Hamilton,
Ont.: Wolsak and Wynn, 2008: p. 370, n.15). (Traoré's assertion that aid
receipts equal repatriated natural resources profits certainly holds true for the
case of Canada, where its aid to Mali over the last ten years was U$230m.,
compared to U$215m. in net profits garnered by Canadian mining company
IAMGOLD corporation, as discussed in Section 3 of this report. However,
IAMGOLD has also by its investment brought $1bn. in revenue to Mali over
this time, and another $1bn. to South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti and other
non-Malian sources).
Third, Gerald Caplan, Canadian historian of Africa, social critic and former UN
consultant, who puts it most bluntly: "[T]he very term 'investment' badly
distorts what's really going on. Plundering, looting and exploiting the
innumerable resources of Africa is a far more accurate description" (Caplan,
Gerald. "The Betrayal of Africa", Toronto: Groundwood, 2008: 92).
My fourth influence isn't Canadian, but industry analyst Roger Moody has an
intimate knowledge of high-income countries' mining activities in the Global
24 of 165

South, including Canada's: "For years, Canada's miners have relied on a
complicit administration to provide them with a slew of subsidies out of the
public purse, both to promote investment abroad and ensure gains come back
home" ("Rocks & Hard Places: The Globalization of Mining," Zed, 2007: 181).
In fact, large proportions of these nominally Canadian profits end up with 100%
wholly-owned subsidiaries located in offshore financial centres, or "tax havens"
such as the Barbados and Bahamas. My present research revealed this to be the
case for several Canadian mining companies presently or recently operating in
Mali, including IAMGOLD Corporation and Nevsun Resources.
Canadian mining activities, both at the exploration and production scales, have
not been reported on by either Mr. Gutnick nor by Ms. Nolen during her five
years in Africa. There have been only a handful of accounts touching on this
subject by the CBC in recent years, Radio One "Dispatches" features titled
"Mine Games" (September 14, 2006) and an interview with Joan Baxter
("Golden rules", May 18/24 2009); a CBC-TV "Sunday" segment, "Ghana's
Golden Opportunity?" (October 14, 2007); a report by Bruce Edwards on "The
World At Six", April 2, 2009, about Canadian-owned Uranium One, Inc.'s
recently abandoned mine in Dominionville, South Africa, which mentioned a
new study on how Africa's royalty and taxation policies overly favour foreign
interests (Southern Africa Resource Watch; Third World Network Africa
"Breaking the Curse: How Transparent Taxation and Fair Taxes Can Turn
Africa's Mineral Wealth into Development", 2009, sarwatch.org). Are these
lacunae wilful or accidental? Is mainstream media reporting of Canadian-
sponsored development projects in Africa a smokescreen for other, more
questionable activities, possibly including the dispossession of the natural,
exhaustible, subsoil wealth from underneath monetarily-poor Africans' feet?
How will twenty-second century historians and economists judge Canada's
legacy in Africa? Are CBC reports of Canadian acts of goodwill in Mali really
Trojan horses, displacement measures? Timeo Canadenses et dona ferentes?
Neo-colonialism? Pax Canadensis?
The narrow conclusion my readings have drawn is affirmative. For example,
Mr. Gary Nash, Assistant Deputy Minister, Minerals and Metals Sector,
Department of Natural Resources stated during a 2006 Parliamentary
Committee that "[i]n an analysis done by the OECD and by the Export
Development Corporation here in Canada, they say that every dollar invested
abroad by a mining company brings a minimum of $2 back. Why? Because of
all the services and supplies from these other companies" (Government of
Canada, 39th Parliament, 1st Session, Standing Committee on Natural
25 of 165

Resources, "Evidence", Thursday, June 1, 2006). The broader implication is we
need further investigation, and the CBC certainly has a key responsibility here.
Our country's burgeoning business ventures in Africa are only part of what
Canadians need to know about that continent. Development and foreign
investment certainly aren't the totality. When foreign reporters aren't pointing
recording devices and imposed identities their way, how do the many peoples of
Africa view themselves? What themes appear in their works of the
imagination? The BBC World Service frequently broadcasts radio plays
written, acted and produced by Ghanaians, Nigerians, and Kenyans. Until
2008, Radio South Africa was re-broadcast for 30 minutes on CBC Radio
Overnight, but in early 2009, only European, Australian and South Korean
programming is heard (www.cbc.ca/overnight). Just as Radio Canada
International broadcasts daily to Africa via shortwave, couldn't CBC Radio One
relay the external services or special programmes directly from the Voice of
Nigeria, or the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation during daylight hours? This
could be a two-way street, and Canadians would certainly learn a great deal
from Africans. With deep compassion, Joan Baxter writes that "[m]uch can be
learned from Africa and its philosophies and cultures that might ease some of
the less attractive aspects of modern societies where material things can seem
more important than living things, such as human beings" (2008: 16). And
Stephanie Nolen, in her farewell piece from Africa late in 2008 notes "things
[her South African friend] misses about Jo'burg, such as people going out of
their way for a mother with young children. No one ever scoops a stranger's
toddler up into their lap on a bus in Toronto. There's that thing about South
Africa, she says - a place so screwed up in so many ways, and yet it produces
people who become moral touchstones for the world. When was the last time
Canada did that?"; and Nolen sadly remarks that "[i]n five years as this
newspaper's Africa correspondent, I found myself in such a crush of reporters
just three times" ("In dark and light", The Globe and Mail, December 13, 2008:
F1).
* * * ** *** ** * * *
26 of 165

2. MALI & "DEVELOPMENT"
2.1. MALIANS & CANADIANS: THREE STARK COMPARISONS
2.1.1. (a) 10% OF CANADIANS AMONG WORLD'S RICHEST 1%, AND
10% OF MALIANS AMONG WORLD'S POOREST 1%
Recent research published by the UN Department of Economic and Social
Affairs has shown that the ratio of incomes of the richest one percent of the
world's citizens, compared to the world's poorest one percent, rose from 216 in
1980 to 415 in 2000, and 564 in 2003, even when differences in purchasing
power are factored in. Among the top global income percentile were the richest
tenth of Canadians together with the top fractions of Americans and 15 other
mainly European nations, while among the bottom percentile were the poorest
tenth of Malians and fractions of 15 other nations, mainly in Africa (Sutcliffe,
Bob. "A converging or diverging world?", UN Department of Economic and
Social Affairs, DESA Working Paper No. 2, October 2005: 12). If the
emerging middle classes of China and India are omitted, the share of income
received by the richest tenth of humanity has risen from 36% to 43%, while that
for the poorest tenth has declined from 0.6% to 0.5% (Berry, Albert and John
Serieux (2007). "World economic growth and income distribution, 1980-2000",
In: Flat world, big gaps: economic liberalization, globalization, poverty and
inequality, edited by Jomo K.S. with Jacques Baudot, London: Zed). More
detailed analyses by Emmanuel Saez and Statistics Canada have found that
while improvements have been made in the incomes of Canada's worst-off
elderly citizens, it is Canada's top one percent of income earners who are the
only segment having experienced substantial, inflation-adjusted income
increases over the past quarter-decade, despite female labour participation rates
increasing significantly (Saez, Emmanuel and Michael Veall. "The Evolution of
High Incomes in Northern America: Lessons from Canadian Evidence",
American Economic Review, 95(3), 2005, 831-849; Brian Murphy et al.,
"High-income Canadians", Perspectives on Labour and Income, September
2007: 5-17). Some Canadians argue that we must overcome the issues of
poverty within our own borders before addressing needs abroad, yet these data
suggest that our only citizens to have truly enriched themselves are not the
poorest, but the best-off hundredth of us.
Until recently, at least, global investors have been largely blind or indifferent to
the social circumstances around which shareholder value is created. Canadian
27 of 165

journalist and broadcaster Carol Off described it as "the ethical insensitivity of
the market [...] the moral ambiguity of a consuming public that has always been
quick to decry injustice, but also determined to enjoy the fruits of the earth at
the lowest prices possible" ("Bitter chocolate: investigating the dark side of the
world's most seductive sweet", Random House, 2006: 299). Does a private
Canadian investor or large pension funds administrator, likely among the top
one percent of the world's income-holders, realize that Malians who work or
live around the mines they invest in, are growing relatively poorer in the world's
bottom one percent? Are countries merely abstract data points reduced to
performance potential, stripped of development handicap considerations in a
supposedly flat playing field, a globally competitive world? Who has the moral
and political prerogative to intercede? Critics would label them watchdogs,
holier-than-thou, sanctimonious, insufferably pious, bleeding-heart busy-
bodies; as troublemakers laying guilt trips on ordinary Canadians; citizens who
have persistently donated one per cent of their household disposable incomes to
charity over the last 15 years (Statistics Canada CANSIM 203-0001), who are
overwhelmed by confusing, mixed messages from activists, and who may fall
prone to compassion fatigue.
2.1.2. (b) WOMEN IN MALI 200 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DIE
DURING CHILDBIRTH THAN CANADIAN WOMEN.
From the World Bank's World Development Report 2006, p. 56: "To put global
inequalities in well-being in perspective, it helps to examine two countries at
opposite ends of the spectrum — Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries,
and the United States, one of the richest. A baby born in Mali in 2001 had an
approximately 13 percent chance of dying before reaching age one, with this
chance declining only slightly (to 9 percent) even if the baby were born to a
family in the top quintile of the asset distribution. By contrast, a baby born in
the United States the same year had a less than 1 percent chance of dying in its
first year. The picture for under-five mortality is even more egregious: 24
percent of children will not reach age five in Mali, compared with less than 1
percent of American children. Even a child born into the richest quintile in
Mali is more than 16 times likely to die before age five than an average
American child [...] It is not surprising, then, that many citizens of Mali, having
survived immense hardships as children and without much education, can
barely eke out a living as adults, on average living on less than $2 a day ($54 a
month) in 1994". The same report shows that in 2000, the chances of a
Canadian woman dying during childbirth were 6 in 100,000, compared to 1,200
in 100,000 for women in Mali (World Bank, 2006: 294). The UN reports
slightly different figures for the year 2000, from UNICEF data: 7 Canadian
28 of 165

maternal deaths and 970 Malian maternal deaths per 100,000 live births
(UNDP, "2007/2008 Human Development Report", 10. Survival: progress and
setbacks); this reduces the difference in mortality rates from 200 to 139 times.
In fact, the Canadian International Development Agency reports that in the
Kayes region of Mali, where Canadian mining activity is heavily concentrated,
maternal mortality rates during obstetric emergencies are one in 25, down from
one in seven just five years previously (CIDA website, "A Bright Future Ahead
—Reducing maternal and infant mortality in Mali", Last Updated: 2008-04-14).
Does a Canadian who chooses to invest in a Mali gold mine with the
expectation of generating a profit seriously believe they are benefiting Malians
as much as themselves?
2.1.3. (c) CANADIAN BILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL
DEVELOPMENT AID TO MALI, 1996-2007, nominal US dollars:
US$383m. (at 25%-75% "tied aid"). PROFITS REPATRIATED BY
CANADIAN MINING COMPANY IAMGOLD IN MALI, 1996-2007:
US$260m. CANADA PENSION PLAN EARNINGS ON IAMGOLD
INVESTMENTS 2006, 2007: US$6.7m. QUEBEC PENSION PLAN
EARNINGS ON MINING IN MALI, 2007: $0.3 m. CANADA-MALI
TRADE BALANCE, average, 2004-2008: Cdn.$8.6m. MALIAN-
CANADIAN REMITTANCES TO MALI, 2007: approximately
US$580k.
Sydney, Nova Scotia native Mark Nathanson reportedly discovered Mali's
largest gold mine, Sadiola, in 1988, and IAMGOLD, the Toronto-based
company which he co-directed until 2003, holds a 38% share in the SEMOS
consortium. SEMOS is operated by South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti (also a
38% share) and co-owned by the Government of Mali (18%) and the World
Bank (6%). IAMGOLD owns 40% shares in two smaller Malian mines, the
SEMOS Yatela mine (2001- ) and Alamoutala mine (2003-2005), all in the
Kayes region of western Mali (Oxfam America, "Hidden treasure? In search of
Mali's gold mining revenues", 2007: 49). Estimates from Norway's Chr.
Michelsen Institute are that IAMGOLD has earned a profit over the period
1994-2004 of about $44m, based on the foreign companies' 11% share of gross
gold sales and IAMGOLD's 38% share of the 11%. Oxfam America states that
IAMGOLD dividends were $63.1 m. from 1999-2004, and that SEMOS
reported 69% of profits going to the Malian government while the other 31%
was shared by IAMGOLD, AngloGold Ashanti and the International Finance
Corporation ("Hidden treasure? In search of Mali's gold mining revenues",
2007: 52). The tally of "net earnings" for the two Mali mines in IAMGOLD's
portfolio for 1998-2004 was $129.2 m., for 1998-2007: $268.4 m., and for
29 of 165

1996-2007, $266.9 m (IAMGOLD Annual Reports, 1997: 27, 1998:57,
2000:68-69, 2002:66, 2004:55, 2005:55, 2007:115-117). The Sadiola mine this
decade has been Mali's most productive, with a predicted lifetime from 1996-
2013 (Oxfam America 2006: 49). Gold prices have more than tripled over this
decade, from US$282 per oz. in January 2000 to $943 in February 2009 (World
Gold Council, "Daily gold price in a range of currencies since January 2000").
Accordingly, profits from IAMGOLD's Malian mines have risen dramatically,
from $16m. in 2005 to $71m. in 2006 and $52m. in 2007 (IAMGOLD, Annual
Report, 2007: 115-117). By comparison, the South African partner AngloGold
Ashanti, with precisely equal 38% and 40% shares to IAMGOLD, reported net
Malian earnings of $31m. (2005), $93m. (2006) and $54m. (2007) (AngloGold
Ashanti, "Annual Report" 2007: 88,90).
IAMGOLD's adjusted net earnings (net income) from its stakes in Mali's
Sadiola and Yatela mines as reported in their annual reports as the following:
2007: $51.9 m. (AR2007: 115), 2006: $70.7 m. (AR2007: 116), 2005: $16.5 m.
(AR2007: 117), 2004: $17.6 m. (AR2005: 55), 2003: $15.4 m. (AR2005: 55),
2002: $17.1 m. (AR2004: 55), 2001: $24.3 m. (AR2002: 66), 2000: $23.7 m.
(AR2000: 12), 1999: $22.3 m. (AR 2000: 13), 1998: $8.8 m. (AR1998: 57),
1997: $2.5 m. (AR1998: 57), 1996: ($4.0 m.) (AR1997: 27).
IAMGOLD has stated that "[t]he five-year tax holiday at the Sadiola operations
ended March 1, 2002 while Yatela’s five-year tax holiday ends July 3, 2006"
(IAMGOLD, "Annual Report 2004": 29). However, this holiday may be
overriden by a "grandfather clause" in its convention establishment, signed with
the Malian government in the early 1990s. According to IAMGOLD's partner:
"As the establishment conventions contain stabilisation clauses, the mining
operations carried out by the AngloGold Ashanti entities in Mali are subjected
to the provisions of the previous mining codes of 1970 and 1991 but also, for
residual matters, to the provisions of the Mining Code of 1999" (AngloGold
Ashanti, "Annual Financial Statements 2008", 123). Section 3 examines this in
depth.
According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development data,
Canadian aid, private investment, and private philanthropy totaled US $286m.
to Mali between 1996 and 2007; almost all of it, $277m., consisting of grants
(OECD. "Geographical Distribution of Financial Flows to Developing
Countries 2009: Disbursements, Commitments, Country Indicators," Paris:
OECD, 2009: 28, 172). It is important to note that Canada's international
development assistance once required recipient countries to "buy Canadian" to
a high degree. Termed "tied aid", or "tying status" by the OECD's
30 of 165

Development Assistance Committee, the proportion of Canadian development
funds that had to be spent on Canadian goods and services has fallen from
75.1% in 2000 to just 25.4% in 2007 (OECD Journal on Development:
Development Co-operation Report, 2000 to 2007). In 2008, the Canadian
government announced its intention to eliminate all tying of its development
assistance by 2012 (CIDA, "Canada Fully Unties its Development Aid", News
Release, September 5, 2008).
Compared to the Government of Canada's U$286 m. aid to Mali (1996-2007),
IAMGOLD profits for the same eleven-year period from its shares in Mali's
Sadiola and Yatela mines were very similar, US $267 m. (IAMGOLD Annual
Reports 1998:57, 2000:12, 2004:55, 2005:55, 2007:115-117). And the
Government of Mali received directly from these mines in dividends and taxes,
from 1999-2004, $212 m. (Oxfam America 2007: 52).
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has published annual lists of its
Canadian equity holdings since March 2006. Based on the shares held and
earnings per share reported in IAMGOLD's Annual Reports, the CPPIB earned
US$1.47 m. in 2006 (3.79 m. shares x $0.39/share) and US$5.47 m. in 2007
(5.46 m. shares x $0.20/share) (cppib.ca, "Canadian Equity Holdings", 2006
and 2007 lists). The Quebec Pension Plan, managed by the Caisse de dépôt et
placement du Québec, had invested in three mining companies operating in
Mali in 2007, AngloGold Ashanti (14,613 shares), IAMGOLD (1,398,370
shares) and Robex Resources (1,360,112) (www.lacaisse.com, "Annual Report
– Additional Information 2007", p. 80, 120, 153). AngloGold dividends per
share in 2007 were also $0.20, earning the QPP $3k (AngloGold Ashanti,
Annual Financial Statements 2007: 2), and earnings from IAMGOLD shares
were $0.3 m. Robex suffered a loss of $0.012 per share in 2007, resulting in the
QPP losing $16.3k in its investment (Robex Resources, "Annual Report for the
year ended December 31, 2007", p. 10).
Canada's imports from Mali peaked in 1999 at $28m., of which $21m. was raw
cotton, but have fallen dramatically since then to under $0.5 million, with
Malian cotton imports now only around $1,000. Canada's exports to Mali,
about $8m. annually this decade, are 80% related to mining exploration. The
remainder consists largely of tax decals for Malian vehicle registration, used
clothing (possibly woven from Mali's non-value-added cotton exports), and oral
contraceptives (Industry Canada, Trade Data Online, Cdn. $).
For estimations of Malian-Canadian workers' remittances to family members
and communities back in Mali, please refer to section 2.4.
31 of 165

Asking people around the world how often they find themselves going hungry
tends to collapse the socioeconomic disparities among us. Occupying extreme
opposite ends of the United Nations Development Program's Human
Development Index, Canadians and Malians were both among 47 nations
surveyed in 2007 by Washington's Pew Research Center. When asked if there
were times in the last year when respondents lacked enough money to buy food,
26% of Malians and 6% of Canadians replied affirmatively (see Section 2.2,
"Malians' optimism").
* * * ** *** ** * * *
2.2. MEASURES OF MALI'S HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
2.2.1. MALIAN INCOMES ARE WHAT CANADIANS EARNED 170
YEARS AGO. LIFE EXPECTANCY GAP: 100 YEARS. INFANT
MORTALITY GAP: 75 YEARS
A detailed set of national income data compiled by the economic historian
Angus Maddison allows us to make to interesting comparisons between
Canadian and Malian relative levels of economic prosperity over the past five
hundred years. Mali's average per capita GDP, adjusted for differences in
purchasing power and converted to the 1990 "international dollar", was $457 in
1950, $791 in 1996, and $1,103 in 2006. By comparison, Canadian per capita
GDP in 1700 was $430, in 1820: $904, in 1830: $1,000, in 1840: $1,162, and in
1850: $1,330 (Maddison, Angus. "Statistics on World Population, GDP and Per
Capita GDP, 1-2006 AD", March 2009, vertical file,
http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/). Assuming that all nations follow similar
income growth patterns, in 1950, the average citizen of Mali had an income
equivalent to what Canadians had two and half centuries earlier, in 1700; thus,
it could be said that Malians were about 250 years "behind" Canadians in
economic development or material well-being. In 1996, when the Canadian-
and South African-financed SEMOS mine began gold production, Malian
incomes were roughly equivalent to what Canadians earned in 1800, so the
income gap was now only 200 years. In 2006, ten years into the SEMOS
mine's gold production, Malian incomes made further gains to reach 170 years
behind Canada. So, in the last 56 years, Mali has managed to narrow the
income gap with Canada by one-third. Maddison's data show that Malians'
incomes have risen an average inflation-adjusted rate of 3.3% per year during
32 of 165

this decade, which is double the overall annual growth rate for 1950-2006 of
1.7%. The gap-narrowing over the last decade may perhaps be attributable to
the global "resource boom", the tripling of world gold prices triggered in part
by emerging consumer demand from China and India. Nevertheless, the United
Nations Population Division estimates that the current decade, 2000-2009, will
be the peak decade for Mali's population growth, at about 2.4% per year; in the
1990s, it was 2.0% and in the 2010s, at medium variant growth rates, it is
predicted to attenuate to 2.3%, slowly falling to 1.5% by mid-century (Source:
Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision,
http://esa.un.org/unpp).
Mercifully, development lags in other measures of human wellbeing are less
severe than for incomes, and the gaps are diminishing gradually. Malian life
expectancy at birth in 1950-55 was 35.5 years, in 1995-2000: 44.9 years, and in
2005, 48.3 years (Population Division of the Department of Economic and
Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, "World Population Prospects:
The 2008 Revision", http://esa.un.org/unpp). This compares to historical data
on Canadians' life expectancies of 38 years in 1820, 43 years in 1890 and 52
years in 1910 (Bourguignon, François and Christian Morrison. Data sources for
"Inequality among world citizens: 1820- 1992", http://www.delta.ens.fr/XIX).
Thus, in 1950 Malians were about 150 years "behind" Canadians in life
expectancy, but by 2005 the development gap had narrowed to 100 years. Even
in 1926, Canadian life expectancy was about 59 years (Statistics Canada,
"Figure 10 Life expectancy at birth by sex in Canada, 1926 to 2031", Canadian
Demographics at a Glance: Components of population growth,
www.statcan.gc.ca, viewed May 2009).
Infant mortality rates for Malians were 225 per 1,000 live births in 1970 and
120 per 1,000 in 2005 (UNDP, "Human Development Report" 2007/2008:
Table 10, http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/91.html). By comparison, the
average infant mortality rate during 1921-25 for all Canadians was 98.7 per
1,000 live births, and 124.5 for Quebeckers ("Infant mortality rates, Five Year
Averages, 1921-1990, Canada, Québec, Ontario - Statistical Material",
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/stats/infant2.htm).
The Canadian rate fell from 93 to 75 from 1926-1930 to 1931-1935, while the
Quebec rate fell from 127 to 98 (Statistics Canada, "CYB Historical Collection
> Browse by… > List of tables > 1947", Infant mortality and rates per 1,000
live births, by provinces, 1941 to 1945, with five-year averages, 1926 to 1945).
Thus Mali today has the same infant mortality rate as the Canadian province of
Quebec had 75 years ago, and Canada overall had longer than 75 years ago.
33 of 165

Within Canada today, regional variation in infant mortality is greatest for the
Quebec region of Nunavik (17.8 deaths per 1,000 live births) and Nunavut (13.5
per 1,000), compared to the national average of 5.3 in 2001 (Statistics Canada,
"Infant mortality, rate per 1,000 live births and confidence interval, by sex,
three-year average, Canada, provinces, territories, health regions and peer
groups, 2001", "Health Indicators", 2009, vol. 1, no. 1, Home > Publications >
82-221-X > Main page > Data tables and maps > Infant Mortality). Thus,
Canada's worst-off communities still have infant survival rates twelve times
better than Mali.
2.2.2. MALIANS 31% RICHER, 21% LONGER LIFESPANS SINCE 1990.
In its 2007/2008 Human Development Index (HDI), a composite indicator of
average national life expectancy, education and income, the United Nations
Development Program placed Canada fourth and Mali 173rd among 177
nations; the 2008 update puts us third and Mali 168th out of 178
(hdr.undp.org/statistics/). Since the first annual HDI publication in 1990,
Canada received an average ranking of first or second-highest during the 1990s,
and fourth-highest in the 2000s, while Mali ranked fourth-lowest in the 1990s
and fifth-lowest in the 2000s. On the positive side, Mali's Human Development
Index (HDI) has risen swiftly since 2000, from 0.343 to 0.391 in 2006. For 138
nations with these data, Mali's rate of improvement, 2.2% per annum, is fifth-
highest, exceeded only by three other Sahelian nations - all natural resource-
poor or resource-underexploited - Niger, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso, along
with Yemen. This is an encouraging sign that the development gap may indeed
be narrowing. Indeed, if Mali managed to maintain this annual rate in coming
decades, it would cross the UNDP's "medium human development" threshold
score of 0.500 in the year 2017, and effectively achieve convergence with the
highest human-development countries by 2050. However, several African
countries occupy the bottom end of the spectrum, having actually undergone
HDI regression over this decade, including Namibia, Côte d'Ivoire, South
Africa, Central African Republic, Lesotho, and Swaziland, owing primarily to
life expectancies shortened by HIV/AIDS infection. Country data for the
longer period from 1980 to present are much sparser and Mali is absent; the
trends are similar but growth rates are slower, with Burkina Faso and Burundi
(both at 1.4% per year) among the fastest HDI improvers, while high-income
OECD countries and Liberia, South Africa and Swaziland have undergone
stasis or regression (UNDP, "Human Development Report 2007/2008",
Indicator Tables HDI 2008, calculated from Table 1). If Mali were to maintain
Burkina Faso's 1.4% average annual HDI improvement rate over the next
decades, it will cross the 0.500 medium development threshold around 2025,
34 of 165

and reach an HDI of 0.722 at mid-century: equivalent to what Bolivia's score in
2007, ranking it 111th out of 179 nations. The rapid improvement in African
Sahelian countries' index values may partly be an artifact of the UN's method of
computation, one-third of which compresses international variations in income
per capita using logarithms (HDR 2007/2008: 356). Nevertheless, the Canada-
Mali development gap does appear to be steadily narrowing this decade by five
percentage points: in 2000, Mali's HDI value was 0.343, or 35.1% of Canada's
(0.950), but by 2006, the Malian HDI had risen to 0.390, or 40.4% of Canada's
(0.970) (United Nations Development Programme. ''Human Development
Report'', 2007/2008, Table 2, p. 233-237).
In 1990, Malians' life expectancy at birth was 45.0 years, or 69% of the world
average of 65.5 (HDR 1991: 123) while in 2005, the average Malian could
expect to live to 53.1 years, or 78% of the world average of 68.1 years (HDR
2007/2008:232); this implies that the overall survival and health of Malians has
improved significantly. However, alternative measures from the UNDP suggest
that Mali has made no progress whatsoever relative to the world averages.
Malians' purchasing power-adjusted real income per capita was 22.6% of the
world average in 1960 ($400 vs. $1,770), 12% of the world average in 1988
($500 vs. $4,340) (HDR 1991: 127), and 10.8% of the world average in 2005
($1,033 vs. $9,543) (HDR 2007/2008: 232); Malian average incomes doubled,
but so did the average world citizen's. The adult literacy rate in Mali was
estimated at 23% in 1985 (HDR 1991: 129) (world average: 76.4%) and 24%
for 1995-2005 (world average: 82.4%), ranking it second-worst, just above
Burkina Faso (HDR 2007/2008: 272). Mali's child mortality rate in 1970, 400
deaths per 1,000 live births was 2.7 times the world average of 148, and then
likely the highest in the world; by 2005 it had fallen to 218, lower than Sierra
Leone's 282, Angola's 260, and Niger's 256, but as a ratio to the world average
of 76, it had increased to 2.9 times. Child mortality in Canada, by comparison,
went from 19 per thousand live births in 1970 to 6 in 2005 (HDR 07/08: 264).
The World Bank "Country Brief" for Mali reports a doubling in gross national
income per capita between 1994 and 2006, a 4.0% average annual increase,
from US$240 to US$487, (worlbank.org, Home > Countries > Africa > Mali >
Overview > Country Brief, "Last updated March 2009"). However, the
International Monetary Fund's "World Economic Outlook Database", October
2008 Edition shows that between 1990 and 2005, Mali's population grew from
8.5 million to 12.5 million persons, its per capita GDP in constant, 2000 CFA
currency rose from CFA 158,166 to CFA 207,082, and the gross domestic
product in purchasing-power parity (PPP) terms, as a share of global income,
rose from 0.017% to 0.021%. Annual inflation-adjusted income per capita
grew by only 0.04% per year between 1980-90, by 1.5%/year from 1990-2000,
35 of 165

Canada mali

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (6)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (19)

Similar to Canada mali

Similar to Canada mali (20)

More from suzi smith

More from suzi smith (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Canada mali