The Export Development Corporation (EDC). The corrupt ways the Crown Corporation is run and how it brings tragic results to third world countries.

Essay by jennaglovesHigh School, 12th gradeA+, March 2003

download word file, 12 pages 4.2

The Export Development Corporation (EDC) is a Crown corporation established in 1944 through the Export Development Act. The EDC assists Canadian development projects in third world countries through the provision of financial services. It guarantees loans and issues insurance to Canadian companies when no one else will invest in their economically risky projects. As a result the EDC makes these uneconomic investments proceed. Since the EDC is exempted from the Access to Information Act, its activities are sheltered from the public view, so most Canadians have no idea what the EDC is involved in. It has now become clear that a number of EDC supported projects are socially, environmentally, and economically destructive. It is also clear that the EDC's activities are a perfect breeding ground for corruption and for business activities that destroy the environment, sink Third World citizens in debt, and cost Canadians money. Alarmingly, these harmful projects are made possible thanks to mislead and misinformed Canadian Taxpayers.

What the EDC is doing to other countries and our own, is unacceptable and should be put to a stop.

Canadian citizens, living in a country where democracy rules and free speech is encouraged, have a right to obtain knowledge about what major Canadian corporations are investing in and what types of projects they are supporting. Crown agencies like the Export Development Corporation should be subject to the Access to Information Act. What the Access to Information Act provides for the public is records ranging from expense reports to correspondence from major federal departments. These types of records are accessible to the public for a fee of $5.00. However, several agencies are not

subject to the Act, particularly Crown corporations and other entities created by the government. These Access laws encourage corporations to be "demonstrably worthy of public trust"...