Important coverage of this problem published by The Narwhal on July 16, 2018, quoting Ugo Lapointe. Read the whole article here.
An excerpt:
Companies pay Canada a tiny fraction of what they pay other countries to extract gold
Mining companies are extracting billions of dollars worth of gold from Canada every year but are paying only a tiny fraction in taxes and royalties compared to operations in other countries, an analysis by The Narwhal has found.
Experts say Canadian governments are collecting a smaller percentage of mineral value than almost any other jurisdiction on earth, ranging from Burkina Faso to Chile to Finland.
For example, Barrick Gold, the second-largest mining company in Canada, extracted close to $250 million in gold from its Helmo mine in northwest Ontario in 2017, the most recent year for which data is publicly available. In return, the company paid $14.4 million in taxes and fees — or only 5.8 per cent of the gold’s worth.
That same year, Barrick extracted roughly $817 million in gold at its Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic. There, the company paid $327 million in taxes, royalties, fees and infrastructure improvements — a full 40 per cent of the gold’s total value.
Meanwhile in Peru, the government received $45.5 million in compensation for the company’s Lagunas Norte mine — or 9.4 per cent of the recovered gold’s worth.
When broken down, the disparity between fees paid is stark: Barrick paid the Dominican Republic roughly $503 per ounce of gold, paid Peru $117 per ounce of gold and paid Canada $73 per ounce.
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Read the rest here: https://thenarwhal.ca/mining-pay-less-taxes-canada-abroad/